Covid-19: Employers urged to accept digital HSO, RO to avoid congestion at CACs, says Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: All employers or related parties have been urged to accept a copy of the digital certificate for the Home Surveillance Order (HSO) and Release Order (RO) after the patient isolation period ends to avoid congestion at Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CACs).

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement Friday (Feb 25), said based on data at the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), a total of 90% of those attending the CACs were for the purpose of discharge from HSO where there were patients or employers requesting to get a written notice.

"Reports to the national CPRC found that between 30% to 50% of cases at the CACs were not for assessment for cases that deteriorated while undergoing home monitoring.

"This leads to an increase in the workload in the CACs where the focus of health workers is on aspects of assessment and treatment of cases that require special attention," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham urged all employers to be sensitive to this matter and accept the HSO and RO digital certificates and not force employees to seek verification from the CACs.

On the percentage of Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage in the hospital, he said six states and localities showed a usage percentage of more than 50% — Kelantan (86%), Johor (59%), Labuan (57%), Kuala Lumpur (54%), Sabah (52%) and Melaka (50%).

Meanwhile, on the positive Covid-19 cases recorded Thursday (Feb 24), he said 32,070 cases were reported with 99.4% or 31,890 cases in categories one and two while 180 cases or 0.56% were in categories three, four and five, adding that a total of 23,332 recoveries were reported, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 3,018,172.

Categories one and two refer to patients who have no symptoms and mild symptoms, category three involves lung infections, category four involves lung infections and requiring oxygen, while category five refers to critical cases with organ damage and requiring ventilator assistance. - Bernama