Help us – go into self-lockdown, pleads Noor Hisham

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has sounded the alarm over the latest surge of Covid-19 cases, urging Malaysians to practice self-lockdowns to ease the burden on the healthcare system.

He said the high number of new Covid-19 cases was a result of gatherings and social activities in public areas which took place before Hari Raya Aidilfitri.

“ICUs nationwide have reached 91% capacity. In the Klang Valley alone, it is at 113%,” he said, adding that the ICU capacity in private hospitals have also reached 60%.

“Help the health ministry by practicing self-lockdowns for two weeks to help us break the chain of infections,” he said. “We are not going to succeed without cooperation from all Malaysians in urban and rural areas to comply with the rules and stay at home.”

Noor Hisham said the health ministry was stockpiling medical equipment and working on increasing capacity at public hospitals to accommodate the increasing number of patients.

He said the ministry would make use of the Emergency Ordinance to utilise the Cyberjaya Hospital and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Specialist Children’s Hospital to take in more patients.

Emergency departments in certain public hospitals will be transformed into ICUs, while private hospitals would also be offering a total of 124 beds for patients in critical condition.

Elective surgeries in Klang Valley government hospitals have been suspended for the time being, and those requiring surgery will be referred to private hospitals.

Noor Hisham added that the ministry was also looking at setting up more low-risk treatment and quarantine centres, mobilising more manpower to the Klang Valley and ramping up testing.

He also encouraged non-governmental organisations, companies and state governments to conduct their own screenings using the RTK-Antigen test. FMT

Kadar penggunaan katil ICU di Lembah Klang cecah 113 peratus