KOTA KINABALU – Kota Kinabalu MP Chan Foong Hin, today urged the federal government to deploy more healthcare personnel, resources and Covid-19 vaccine doses from other states to Sabah.
The DAP lawmaker said that Sabah’s healthcare system appeared to be on the brink of collapse as it is overwhelmed and understaffed by a high surge of Covid-19 patients.
“Sabah recorded 2,651 new Covid-19 cases yesterday; with 1,418 of them recorded in the four central districts including – Kota Kinabalu, Penampang, Putatan, and Tuaran. This amounts to more than half of all cases.
“Having 1,418 cases basically translates to one person getting infected with Covid-19 almost every single minute in these four districts with a total of 1,440 minutes (60 minutes x 24 hours) in a day,” he said in a statement, today.
He said this after handing over two large tents to Dr. Lee Wai Khew, the director of the Luyang Clinic near Jalan Lintas earlier this morning.
Chan claimed that the clinic, which is not a Covid-19 treatment centre, has been visited by many patients with Covid-19 symptoms for consultation over the past two weeks.
To further distinguish between suspected Covid-19 patients and the general public, the clinic had to conduct more stringent screening outside the clinic.
After Chan had learned of this situation, he quickly arranged for the two tents this morning to be placed outside the clinic today to separate patients with suspected Covid-19 from general patients.
It is certainly a race against time between vaccinations and the coronavirus infecting new patients.
“It is only after the vaccination rate reaches a considerable proportion of the population can the graph of transmission be suppressed.
“So why are vaccination centres (PPV) in Sabah, like the PPV in Beaufort and Tawau districts, once again reporting shortages of vaccines that they had to defer and postpone vaccination appointments for first doses?
“It is time to prioritise Sabahans and start redirecting vaccines from other states to Sabah.
“The federal government must take the situation in Sabah seriously, our healthcare system does not have the capacity to deal with large surges in cases, unlike the Klang Valley," he said.
Chan said medical experts had long predicted that the Covid-19 pandemic in Sabah will remain at its peak over the next eight weeks.
He also pointed out that the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital’s specialist clinics have been temporarily closed as their staff were dispatched to the Covid-19 treatment center at Queen Elizabeth I Hospital.
As a result, general outpatients were redirected to government clinics like the Luyang Clinic.
“There are 1,258 beds in Sabah’s Covid-19 hospitals, and the utilisation rate has already exceeded 99%. Asymptomatic patients with Covid-19 can only be isolated at home,” he added.
Sabah has registered over 2,000 fresh infections per day for the past six days, and recorded 2,683 new Covid-19 cases today with Kota Kinabalu recording the highest infections at 883 cases today.
Sabah’s Covid-19 official spokesman Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun in his statement today said that the state is currently treating 4,874 active cases, with 1,342 patients in the hospital, occupying 1,392 available beds for Covid-19 patients (96.4%).
Sabah’s overall Covid-19 bed occupancy is currently at 70.7% from 1,329 at hospitals, low-risk quarantine and treatment centres (4,814) and temporary detention centres (672). – The Vibes, August 22, 2021
