KUALA LUMPUR – Johor public hospitals have busted the capacity of their intensive care units used to treat Covid-19 patients.
State Health and Environment Committee chairman R. Vidyananthan, in a statement, said based on yesterday’s data, 49 coronavirus patients are in intensive care at six specialist hospitals in Johor.
Of these, 39 are on ventilators.
He said this brings ICU usage to 114%, as the state is able to accommodate only 43 Covid-19 patients in critical condition.
Johor lacks the human resources to add more Covid-19 beds, he said, and its hospitals are also seeing a high number of critically ill non-coronavirus patients who require intensive care.
Vidyananthan said since April 1, the state’s 12 hospitals have been operating as hybrid Covid-19 hospitals to keep up with the increasing infections.
He said there have been three deaths in the Jalan Impian Emas 17 cluster involving a surau, adding that the index case was detected through screening done on April 21.
Further questioning found that the patient broke fast and performed tarawih prayers at the surau.
“Contact-screening among his family members, colleagues and the surau congregation is being done. As of last Sunday, 252 individuals have been screened, with 52 testing positive,” said Vidyananthan.
The surau was closed from April 24 until Sunday. The state Health Department will monitor the cluster until May 29.
As of yesterday, Johor has 53 active clusters: 19 from industries, community (15), institutions (11), detainees (7) and ship’s crew (1), with the last being imported. – The Vibes, May 4, 2021
