GEORGE TOWN – After a seven-hour search, police have found a Covid-19 patient who fled Penang Hospital yesterday.
The 23-year-old man from Kepala Batas was located at 10pm, still wearing his hospital attire, in Bayan Lepas, 17km from the hospital.
Police said they acted on a public tip-off.
The man was in a daze when he was found. Officers called an ambulance to take him back to the hospital.
Northeast district police chief Soffian Santong, in a text message to The Vibes, confirmed that the patient has been found.
The man had cut his quarantine pink wristband and left it on his hospital bed before sneaking out.
Penang recorded 42 new coronavirus cases yesterday, bringing its total infections to 1,586.
Lawyers for Justice movement coordinator S. Raveentharan said public health personnel must determine whether the runaway patient had close contact with anyone in the time he went missing from the ward.
“We should practise the saying ‘kita jaga kita’. We must drum into Covid-19 patients the notion that they must be a responsible lot.”
The patient who fled the hospital must be charged with endangering public lives to serve as a deterrent, he added. – The Vibes, November 16, 2020
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