KOTA KINABALU – Incidents of Covid–19 infected people, some of whom did not even know they were infected, are winding up dead at home, it is reliably learnt.
Sources from the Sabah Health Department have told The Vibes that the deaths involved registered Covid-19 patients under Categories 1 (asymptomatic) and 2 (mild symptoms), and those not part of the statistics at all.
“I have come to know of many cases brought-in-dead (to the hospital).
“In Penampang alone, we had about three to four cases a day. Imagine the other districts like Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, and Sandakan,” said a health worker.
According to him, families of the deceased usually tell the authorities that the infected people had been sick for a few days before collapsing to their deaths.
“But when their bodies are brought in and the swab tests are done, they are found to be positive (for Covid-19).
“I must admit some of them had chronic ailments such as respiratory problems, which may have contributed to deaths.
“So I believe people may be hiding their conditions and are refusing to go to clinics for swab tests,” he told The Vibes.
Registered patients also succumbing at home
Another worker with close knowledge of the matter said that fatalities at home have also involved those who are already patients.
“They were registered Covid-19 patients ordered to undergo home surveillance,” he said.
“The symptoms must have become more serious, but they waited until the last minute. There are many of them also being brought in dead.”
He said he knows of calls from registered Covid-19 patients complaining of breathing difficulties.
The standard action for such cases is to advise them to call the emergency number 911 for an ambulance to pick them up.
“But often, the operator in response says that they are out of ambulances to pick the person up and tells him or her to wait.
“The patient will call us back and we usually advise them to drive themselves to the hospital,” he added.
The source noted that many of these happened over the past three weeks when the state recorded over 3,000 new cases on a daily basis.
The problem still persists until today, the situation being so serious that the number of death cases has now led to morgues like that in Queen Elizabeth Hospital being flooded.
The Vibes had previously reported that a huge number of Covid-19 patients undergoing home surveillance are not having their movements properly monitored, posing a risk to the communities.
The number of patients undergoing such home quarantine procedures has reached more than 30,000 across the state.
Home surveillance is meant to avoid overcrowding in local hospitals.
However, health authorities monitor patients via house calls to check on their whereabouts and conditions.
Sabah had reopened the home monitoring system call centre on August 11 after the state began consistently reporting 1,000 new cases a day.
The state government has already declared that the virus is now within the communities and that lockdown alone will not end the pandemic.
It has also said that only vaccination will reduce the risk of serious coronavirus infections, including fatalities.
Daily deaths higher than reported
A source said fully vaccinated people are also not spared. Some of the deaths involved individuals who had received both doses.
However, he said the vaccines may have not fully developed the dead’s antibodies.
“I noticed in some of the reports that they died after being vaccinated for only less than a week,” he said.
Another source with knowledge of Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu alleged that the mortuary there is now getting full.
“They (bodies) are all kept inside the mortuary. At one time a couple of weeks ago, the bodies had been stacked up on top of each other,” he said.
“The bodies are kept at the morgue. There is a container kept outside the forensics unit, now used to keep patients who have passed away for natural causes, not Covid-19.”
The source also claimed that the daily death statistics have been modified.
Sabah has been reporting up to 40 deaths a day more recently.
He said the number of deaths is much higher than the official numbers released by the state Health Department.
“What everyone is seeing is the numbers for those whose death papers have been released by the health authorities.
“Only when their papers are released do they go into the daily statistics,” he said.
As the number of daily new cases remains high in Sabah, the state also faces low vaccination rates and overwhelmed hospitals.
The state currently has 11 hospitals dealing with Covid-19, equipped with over 1,600 beds.
The number of hospitalised people at present stands over 2,000, including those in intensive care units and those on ventilation support. – The Vibes, September 3, 2021
