Health Ministry prepared to use training institutes for Covid-19 patients

PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry is prepared to use all its training institutes as Covid-19 quarantine centres which would provide an additional 19,200 beds.

Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) said the ministry initially planned for 3,400 extra beds but was now prepared to use all its training institutes to house Covid-19 patients.

He said the institutes would house Covid-19 positive cases that were asymptomatic and those with mild symptoms.

"Hospitals would be reserved for moderate or critical cases. If there is an increase of cases, then we might use the ministry's training institutes and also the temporary hospital at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (Maeps) that has 600 beds," he said during a press conference on Sunday (March 29).

Dr Noor Hisham said Maeps was chosen to be used as a temporary hospital due to the population density in Kuala Lumpur.

He noted that if should there be an increase of cases – up to 1,000 cases a day, for example – then the ministry might consider using indoor stadiums and public halls.

Dr Noor Hisham said to increase manpower, the ministry had mobilised 3,000 healthcare workers to Maeps.

An additional 3,300 officers comprising nurses and assistant medical officers who have been taken off their post-basic training have also been sent to be on duty at hospitals.

Separately, Dr Noor Hisham said that new fourth- and fifth-generation clusters have been forming, linked to the tabligh gathering at Masjid Jamek, Sri Petaling.

He noted that within a period of one month, Covid-19 infections were now in the fifth generation.

"The new clusters are indirectly related to the fourth and fifth generations. We can see the spread is all over – mainly because the tabligh group went to mosques and infected mosque-goers," he said.

The ministry recorded 150 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday, bringing the total to 2,470, and the death toll had risen to 34.

Of the 150 new cases, Dr Noor Hisham said 61 cases were linked to the tabligh gathering.