How many ventilators Malaysia has before doctors must make life and death call?

CORONAVIRUS | In Italy, stories of doctors having to decide who gets a ventilator and who doesn't base on a patient's chance of survival have emerged amid hospitals becoming overwhelmed by the exponential increase of Covid-19 cases.

These stories highlight the importance of "flattening the curve" - ensuring that the number of new Covid-19 cases do not increase too rapidly that hospitals cannot handle them and also the need to prepare sufficient equipment as the outbreak can rapidly deteriorate.

Therefore, it is not surprising that attention has fallen on Malaysia's readiness to handle a spike in Covid-19 patients.

Health Minister Dr Adham Baba was today asked how many ventilators does Malaysia have for Covid-19 patients and the number, he said, was 926 units.

"A total of 152 of these are non-invasive, meaning that there is no need to intubate. Then there are 142 transport ventilators. Private hospitals have 450 units," he said.

This brings the total units to 744 units. He did not provide details for the remaining units.

However, Adham (photo) said in anticipation of entering the mitigation stage, Malaysia is looking to double the number of ventilators it has as soon as possible.

"We have urgently ordered another 800 units," he said.

Once delivered, this will bring the total ventilators to 1,726 units.

Rapid escalation

In Italy, the number of Covid-19 cases was 1,128 with 29 deaths on March 1.

But today, just slightly more than two weeks later, those numbers have spiralled to 24,747 cases with 1,809 deaths. A total of 368 of those deaths were recorded in the last 24 hours.

The large number of deaths were in part attributed to Italy's overwhelmed healthcare system.

Based on China's experience, 81 percent of Covid-19 cases will only have mild symptoms - meaning the patients do not develop lung infection or pneumonia.

However, the remaining could see severe symptoms that may require ventilators to help them breathe.

China, which was the worst-hit country, provides the best example due to its large sample of cases - at 80,860 cases, and 3,213 of those died.

Due to stringent measures, some described as "draconian", daily Covid-19 cases have finally been brought down to the low double digits in China, where the virus originated.

However, the virus has aggressively spread to the rest of the world including Malaysia.

Malaysia today recorded another 125 new cases, bringing the total to 553 infections. There were 190 new cases yesterday.

Most of the new infections were traced to a religious gathering at Sri Petaling mosque in Kuala Lumpur which took place from Feb 27 to March 1.

Some 14,500 Malaysians from across the country had gathered at the mosque and they later returned to their respective states for missionary work.

However, the mass gathering and movement of people meant the virus spread to various parts of the country.

Life and death situation

At present, Malaysia has 12 Covid-19 patients on ventilators. This is an increase from nine a day ago and five from the day before.

Today, a coalition of medical associations also called on the government to take decisive action to "flatten the curve". 

"If the total number of cases is high and they happen all at once, Malaysia’s hospitals will be overwhelmed.

"We do not want Malaysians to undergo the recent Italian experience, where a sudden surge in new cases caused chaos and agonising life-and-death decisions in an overwhelmed health system," they said.

Adham announced that the Health Ministry has begun implementing mitigation measures, including identifying national quarantine centres. 

Furthermore, in order to boost staff capacity at government hospitals, Adham revealed that 830 nurses have been hired on a two-year contract beginning today.

"These nursing graduates will be placed to serve in hospitals all around the country," he added.

Foreign Minister Hishammuddin Hussein today announced that he will engage China to procure medical equipment. 

"I will be writing formally to my counterpart Wang Yi, China's foreign minister, on this request so that Malaysians will be prioritised and protected in the war against Covid-19.

"This is an opportunity to showcase the strong ties forged between Malaysia and China, just as the ambassador said in the meeting, Bukit sama didaki, lurah sama dituruni (we will overcome obstacles together)," he had said. - Mkini