KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 9): The Ministry of Health (MoH) has increased the bed capacity in Covid-19 hospitals as well as the low-risk Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC), intensive care units, laboratory test capacity and human resource mobilisation, to ensure the healthcare system in Sabah continues to be become more sustainable in curbing Covid-19.

Deputy Health Minister II Datuk Aaron Ago Dagang said that as of Dec 7, Sabah had eight Covid-19 hospitals and 36 PKRC, with the number of beds increasing to 7,031 with the current usage of 30%.

“The number of ICU beds had also increased to 130 from only 60 in September. We have also increased the number of ventilators in Sabah to 193 units with the current usage of 32%.

“Laboratory test capacity is also increased. Now, in Sabah, we can carry out about 2,600 tests and four or five hospitals have also been equipped with laboratories.”

He said this in reply to Ma'mun Sulaiman (Warisan-Kalabakan), who wanted to know the level of preparedness and actions taken to curb the spread of the Covid-19 and the handling of treatment to the growing number of patients in Sabah, at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.

Ma’mun also wanted to know whether medical equipment, medicines and the number of healthcare staff in health centres such as in hospitals are sufficient in facing the Covid-19 crisis throughout Sabah.

Aaron said 2,023 healthcare workers were mobilised from all over the country, including from the interiors of Sabah, to assist in the screening efforts and medical treatment.

Apart from that, the logistics and sample delivery aspects had also been improved to enable test results to be obtained quickly.

The government has also taken various other measures to increase the level of preparedness and response to control the active transmission of Covid-19 by intensifying case detection and contact tracing activities in the field while ensuring compliance with the standard operating procedures and the use of MySejahtera application, he added.

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