Seberang Perai hotels asked to be quarantine centres

 

Although there are four hotels on Penang island housing Covid-19 patients, there are none on the mainland.

GEORGE TOWN: Penang has urged hotels in Seberang Perai to be low-risk Covid-19 treatment and quarantine centres (PKRCs).

This is in view of the sharp rise in cases on the mainland over the past month.

State tourism and creative economy committee chairman Yeoh Soon Hin said there were no quarantine hotels on the mainland although four were operating on the island.

Yeoh said with Seberang Perai Central alone recording 738 Covid-19 cases, out of the 1,485 for the entire Penang mainland, it was urgent to have more PKRC facilities there.

Yeoh called on hotels interested in converting their facilities to a PKRC to apply by writing to yeohsoonhin@penang.gov.my.

Seberang Perai has recorded 12,065 Covid-19 cases over the past two weeks, making it the worst-performing area in terms of case numbers.

Over 95% of the areas are red zones, with Juru and Bukit Tengah being the worst affected, along with scores of industrial areas in the state.

Accoding to the health ministry, Penang’s overall case numbers had gone up due to the use of RTK-Antigen testing for a quicker turnaround as the state’s positivity rate had reached 10%, above the 5% limit set internationally.

There were 1,655 cases in Penang today, of which 1,351 involved locals. Most of the infections today are those with light symptoms and asymptomatic, while 18% had pneumonia and 9% severe breathing problems.

Seberang Perai South continues to record the worst incident rate at 932 cases per 100,000 of the population, followed by Seberang Perai Central (914) and Seberang Perai North (536).

On the island, the northeast district, where the state’s capital George Town is located, recorded 219 cases per 100,000 population, while the southwest district had 448. The state’s overall incident rate is 540. All incident rate numbers are for the period between Aug 13 and 19. - FMT