KUALA LUMPUR – In highlighting the cumulative 79,881 Covid-19 cases in the past five weeks, the Health Ministry said five Klang Valley hospitals have exceeded 70% occupancy of its beds in their Covid-19 critical care wards and intensive care units (ICUs).
In a statement today, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the affected hospitals are Sg Buloh Hospital, Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Ampang Hospital, Serdang Hospital and Klang’s Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital. Meanwhile, Selayang Hospital and Universiti Malaya Medical Centre have reportedly exceeded 50% occupancy in their similar wards.
The ministry attributed this to the 62% surge in admissions of critical cases compared with two weeks ago. As of today, 108 ventilators have been deployed for use in the Klang Valley.
A total of 277 beds have been allocated for critical patients – Covid-19 and non-Covid-19 – in the Klang Valley. Of this, 152 beds are designated for Covid-19 patients and its occupancy has exceeded 88%.
The Health Ministry monitors bed usage and availability for Klang Valley via the Central Region Unified Command Centre (UCC).
UCC is implementing five steps to overcome the critical bed congestion in the Klang Valley:
– Patients in Klang Valley hospitals can be transferred from one hospital to another with vacancies.
– Sg Buloh Hospital to increase bed capacity in its critical/intensive care wards in phases. The ministry has been procuring medical equipment such as ventilators since 2020 for the hospital.
– Elective surgeries and procedures in Klang Valley hospitals to be reduced or delayed to allow more beds for Covid-19 patients. It also allows medical personnel to be mobilised to more critical areas to care for Covid-19 patients.
– Appropriate regular wards will be repurposed. Currently, 80 critical care beds have been repurposed and more will be added based on requirements.
– The ministry continues to work with private hospitals, teaching and university hospitals to increase bed capacity.
This comes after most private hospitals in Klang Valley on April 29 said they are unable to accept any more Covid-19 patients due to the surge in demand in the last 14 days.
The Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia had said all designated beds in Covid-19 wards and isolated ICUs have been constantly occupied.
For the past five weeks, Selangor logged the most cases among the states with 22,099 while Kuala Lumpur had 7,019 infections and Putrajaya had 264.
From January 1 to May 1, Malaysia had an incident rate of 872 for every 100,000 residents. Kuala Lumpur has the highest rate at 1,583, followed by Selangor (1,486) and Putrajaya (1,140).
The ministry said Malaysia’s infectivity rate (R-naught) showed an increase. The country’s current infectivity rate stands at 1.14 while Selangor has a rate of 1.20, Kuala Lumpur has 1.16, and Putrajaya has 1.0. – The Vibes, May 1, 2021
