THERE has been a surge in the number of Covid-19 patients at the Stadium Malawati Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) in Shah Alam in the past week, leading to overcrowding, said Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad.

The chairman of Selangor Task Force for Covid-19 told The Malaysian Insight that it has persistently been more than 1,000 patients daily, but recently, the number is closer to 2,000.

Social media users posted photographs of the long queue outside the stadium today, highlighting the seriousness of the Covid-19 situation in Selangor.

The state has averaged 4,000 new infections for the past week due to its population density. Yesterday, it recorded 4,682 new cases while neighbouring Kuala Lumpur saw 1,247 new infections.

“All the people at Stadium Melawati CAC are Covid-19 positive,” said Dzulkefly.

“Some of them come to be assessed if they are able to home quarantine or need to be admitted to a Covid-19 quarantine and low-risk treatment centre (PKRC) such as MAEPS (Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang).

“Another reason why they have to go to a CAC is to obtain or end their home surveillance order (HSO), that is, wear or cut their pink wristbands.”

The former health minister said the CAC should serve a specific purpose, that is to function as a triaging centre.

Triaging is a medical term for assigning degrees of urgency for the treatment of patients.

To prevent overcrowding, Dzulkefly said the government should consider decentralising triaging to private clinics and health centres.

“CACs should only be used for triaging and not cutting off wristbands. These wristbands can be removed at the local councils. It’s literally just snipping off a wristband,” he said.

“The CACs must be systematic. For patients aged 50 and above and those with comorbidities, they can be automatically admitted to PKRCs without having the need to go through CACs.

“The Stadium Malawati CAC is now overwhelmed because people are not using the other available facilities. Hence, the congestion.”

The government started CACs in January when daily Covid-19 infections began to rise to avoid overwhelming the public hospitals.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba has said there are 213 CACs throughout the country.

To ease the congestion, the Health Ministry said last month that it planned to set up call centres to help the CAC monitoring process. – July 12, 2021.