GEORGE TOWN – After weeks of recording more than 1,000 cases, the Penang Health Department is requesting donations from the public as their supplies dwindle.
These include requests for white personal protective jumpsuits, which differ from the blue ones, as each medical personnel in Covid-19 wards statewide needs a minimum of three changes per shift.
Doctors, nurses, radiographers and cleaners are required to don them before entering any highly infectious area.
The department also released a list of non-medical and medical items needed for the new opening of the Covid-19 low-risk treatment centre at Kompleks Masyarakat Penyayang.
The non-medical items include:
- tents complete with fans and electric sockets
- swab booths
- industrial fans
- wheelchairs
- linen cabinets
- wheeled whiteboards
- laptops, printers and extension wires.
The medical equipment required are:
- resuscitation beds for critical patients
- vital sign monitors
- an electrocardiogram machine (ECG)
- an ophthalmoscope otoscope
- emergency trolleys
- water dispensers
- portable suctions
- an x-ray viewing box
- portable ventilators
- video laryngoscopes
- a manual defibrillator
- syringe pumps
- medication cart trolleys.
Even though they have received some donations since the announcement at the beginning of this week, more is needed to keep the medical system from collapsing.
A medical staff member, who requested anonymity, told The Vibes that the intensive care units (ICUs) in Penang continue to be full as cases pile up.
“Every day there are approximately a dozen cases in Categories 4 and 5, and there are 70 ICU beds.
“With the number of deaths totalling 10 to 20 a day, ICUs remain full as not all die while there. But the chances of surviving even after being admitted into an ICU is very slim,” the staff said.
Penang recorded 20 deaths yesterday, with five brought in dead.
Those who would like to donate the required equipment can contact the Health Department’s medical officer Dr A. Lingeshwaran at 012-594 4347, or its chief assistant medical officer Abdul Halim Abdul Hamid at 012-407 3200.
For cash donations, donors can channel contributions to the Penang Covid-19 Fund through its Maybank account number 5570 546 209 30. – The Vibes, August 22, 2021
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