Prison workshops turn into makeshift hospital to cope with Covid-19 patients

 

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry, in cooperation with the armed forces, are resorting to unconventional means to cope with the rising number of Covid-19 patients.

Their latest effort is to convert two blocks of workshops at the Pokok Sena Prison in Kedah into a makeshift hospital.

This is on top of ongoing efforts to set up a field hospital in Tawau, Sabah which is expected to become operational on Oct 20.

"The Health Ministry and armed forces are strengthening cooperation in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.

"In the latest effort, the Health Ministry and armed forces will set up a makeshift hospital at the Pokok Sena Prison in Kedah.

"For this purpose, two blocks of workshops within the prison grounds are being converted into a makeshift health facility to treat Covid-19 patients, including those who are requiring oxygen supply," Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said in a statement today.

Adham said the makeshift hospital is also expected to begin operating on Oct 20.

Meanwhile, the air force in a separate statement said it is delivering equipment for the upcoming Tawau field hospital.

It is flying in 14 tonnes of supplies on an Airbus A400M Atlas from the Subang airbase.

It added that the supplies are not only for the field hospital in Tawau but for other existing hospitals as well, including Kota Kinabalu.

It took off at 8.55am today and arrived in Tawau at 11.55am.

The Tawau sports complex which will host the field hospital will have 100 normal beds and four intensive care unit beds.

They are intended to treat non-Covid-19 cases so that the bed capacity at full-fledged hospitals can be freed up for Covid-19 patients.

The flight also brought with them 33 medical personnel to prepare and operate the field hospital.

Covid-19 swab tests from Tawau, Kota Kinabalu and Labuan were placed on the flight back to be processed at labs in Peninsular Malaysia.

The country is witnessing a third wave of Covid-19 cases which is the worst since the start of the pandemic in January.

As of yesterday, there were 6,323 Covid-19 patients undergoing treatment nationwide.

The bulk of them are in Sabah (4,187 active cases) and Kedah (1,282). Kedah patients are mostly concentrated in prisons.

In an effort to prevent the healthcare system from being overwhelmed, the government is working to boost the number of hospital beds available for Covid-19 patients.

During the second wave in March, the government had prepared more than 6,000 beds in Covid-19 hospitals.

This capacity has now been boosted to 11,076 beds to cope with the third wave.

More than a third of the 18,758 cases as of yesterday were discovered in the last two weeks. A total of 6,987 new Covid-19 cases were recorded within those 14 days. - Mkini