A COVID-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) with a capacity of 20 beds has been opened at the Putrajaya Hospital (HPJ) and another at the Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Klang Hospital as part of preparations to face any possible surge in COVID-19 cases.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Central Region Zone PKRC at the Malaysia Agriculture Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) is expected to be closed this month due to a declining number of patients.

“Some 99.5% of COVID-19 patients are in Category 1 which is asymptomatic or Category 2 (having mild symptoms), while there is a drop in admission of patients in Categories 3 to 5.

“So we are still able to accept patients and make preparations,” he told the media after spending time with healthcare staff at HPJ who were on duty on the first day of Syawal here on Monday (May 2).

He said the PKRCs were set up by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with Mercy Malaysia, which provided equipment such as tents to accommodate patients in case there is an increase in cases.

MAEPS was activated as a PKRC on April 16, 2020 with the intake of COVID-19 patients only involving non-citizen patients in Categories 1 and 2 and then closed on July 15 the same year.

On Dec 9, 2020, the government decided to reactivate MAEPS as a PKRC following an increase in COVID-19 cases, and it was upgraded to PKRC MAEPS 2.0 on Jan 24 by accepting Categories 3 and 4 patients.

MAEPS PKRC 2.0 was officially closed on Feb 8 but was reopened on Feb 25 following the spread of the Omicron variant.

During the 14 months of operation, a total of 166,072 COVID-19 patients were treated at the centre.

Article Credit - 
[1] The Edge Markets