IT is ideal and advisable to have Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CACs) away from residential areas to avoid any risk of infection, especially in populated neighbourhoods, health experts said.

They, however, added that strict adherence to standard operating procedure (SOP) at these centres should ensure public safety.

Residents have also expressed fears, with one saying the CAC in his housing area looked like a “war zone” due to the huge number of people waiting to be assessed and hospitalised.

Since July, new cases in the country have seen an unprecedented surge with more than 10,000 daily infections with Selangor on top of the chart.

Massive congestion at CACs for the Petaling and Klang districts caused concern among residents as individuals who tested positive turned up to be evaluated.

The CAC for Petaling is at the Malawati Stadium in Shah Alam while the Klang CAC is at the Dewan Sukan Klang in Taman Sri Andalas.

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye told The Malaysian Insight that necessary precautions are needed to ensure that nearby residents are not exposed to added risks.

“As a matter of principle, CACs should be away from housing areas but I had made few suggestions about the CAC,” said Lee.

He said among the suggestions he had made were that confirmed cases can be assessed via phone or video calls instead of their going to the CAC, and patients who do not need admission and being monitored at home should be monitored by phone daily.

“Other than that, patients who need to be hospitalised or sent to the low-0risk quarantine centres should be directed away from CACs,” he said.

Supporting Lee’s view was epidemiologist and biostatistics expert Prof Dr Malina Osman from Universiti Putra Malaysia.

She said strict adherence to SOP is a must to avoid infections.

“As long as all SOP is adhered to by both the public and those at the CAC, there should be no problem. The problem is when the SOP not adhered to,” she said.

Klang MP Charles Santiago, meanwhile, said residents around the CAC in Dewan Sukan Klang had raised concerns over the presence of a huge number of infected patients in their neighbourhood.

As a result of that, he said, the Dewan Sukan Klang CAC has been closed and a new centre opened in Port Klang.

“The worry from the public is there. Therefore the new centre, which is away from housing areas, has been set up in Port Klang,” he said.

The DAP lawmaker, however, said he was not consulted upon when the CAC in Dewan Sukan Klang was opened and when it was closed.

“If they had asked me, I would have given many suggestions. There are many empty warehouses that we can use in Klang and they are away from the public,” he added.

Charles admitted that operating one CAC alone is not enough.

“Klang is a huge area. Having one CAC is not enough and that is why there was a huge turnout,” he said.

A resident at Taman Seri Andalas told The Malaysian Insight that he was worried about his family’s safety when the CAC was in use. 

Residents worried over safety

Norian Che Ahmad, a 45-year-old engineer, recalls getting groceries at a different market, fearing that he would get infected if he did his marketing in his neighbourhood.

“I felt uneasy because the lines were long and there was such a huge crowd of people. I am worried about my safety. I had to buy stuff away from my area to minimise the risk of infection,” he said.

Meanwhile, a retiree who lives near Stadium Malawati described the situation at the CAC as a war zone.

“Thousands of individuals who were positive came and got themselves evaluated in a day.

“I was not the only one who was worried, all of my neighbours, if not the whole community here was afraid.”

However, the man says that the situation at the CAC was now under control.

“It is better now than before, maybe because of the complaints and new procedures are in place,” he said.

It was previously reported that thousands of people had to wait for more than 10 hours at Stadium Malawati to get checked, while in Klang, additional medical officers were deployed to keep the situation under control.

Selangor health director Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman was quoted as saying that measures were taken to improve the condition of the CACs.

“We have activated lanes – the first for new patients, the second for special needs individuals and children, and the third lane is for home quarantine approval, and things went smoothly.

“For example, those with home quarantine approval can enter the stadium straightaway, this saves them from waiting outside.

“For critical cases at the CAC, we have treatment facilities before they are sent to hospital,” he was quoted as saying.

At the same time, the Health Ministry has also introduced virtual CAC for people in the Klang Valley to check-in virtually without the need to physically go to the centres.

Malaysia logged 17,236 Covid-19 cases yesterday, with 212 deaths recorded. The Klang Valley top list on both the number of daily cases and deaths. – August 10, 2021.