PETALING JAYA – The reopening of the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) Integrated Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) was not a sign of insufficient hospital beds due to the escalating Covid-19 patients admission.
On the contrary, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar said that the decision was taken to ensure that the hospitals are able to handle other non-Covid-19 cases.
“At the moment, we need to make practical decisions to preserve the hospital capacity.
“Therefore, yesterday, we announced the reopening of MAEPS PKRC. Some people thought that was, ‘Wow! Red flags. Alarm bell ringing! We do not have enough of hospital beds.’ That was not the case.
“We also have other cases besides the Covid-19 that we need to focus on,” he said.
At a news conference yesterday, Khairy announced the reopening of a smaller scale MAEPS PKRC beginning today following an increment of Covid-19 hospital admission.
He further explained that it would pave way for the hospitals to focus on non-Covid-19 cases that have been postponed for two years.
Earlier, Khairy said that the hospital admission cases have increased by 42 percent, however, they did not require intensive care.
Explaining further on the request for Sungai Buloh Hospital to return to the hybrid status, the Health Minister said that the decision would be made after considering the Covid-19 infection rate in four weeks’ time.
“If the situation maintains for four more week, we can then consider the request of the Sungai Buloh Hospital to be changed back to the hybrid status,” he added.
For the record the Sungai Buloh Hospital was changed from the hybrid status to the full Covid-19 hospital since the pandemic started. -MalaysiaGazette
