Busier time for caterer at MAEPS PKRC with more patients admitted

 

Hectic. That is how Mohd Abu Narahan Tahang describes his task of preparing meals for patients at the Covid-19 Integrated Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) 2.0 at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS).

The owner of Clove Catering said they were usually asked to prepare between 500 and 600 packs of food each for breakfast, lunch and dinner for Covid patients at the centre, but now the number has increased to 1,000.

“The number of food (packs) that MAEPS requests usually increases in the evening. For example, in the morning, we are only asked to prepare 500 packs, but in the afternoon they will call and ask us to prepare a larger number of meals.

“This may be due to an increase in the number of patients admitted to the MAEPS PKRC in the evening," said Mohd Abu Narahan, who uses the services of 20 employees to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner for patients at the MAEPS PKRC.

The 41-year-old said the routine of preparing ingredients and meals begins as early as 2am, because the food must be delivered before 7am.

He said his team also needed to prepare specific dietary meals of between 40 and 50 packs for Covid-19 patients with diabetes, in accordance with the criteria set by the MAEPS PKRC, among them, to add more vegetables.

“Doctors will check the (special diet) meal sent and if it does not follow the specifications set, they will reject it,” he said, expressing gratitude that there had been no problems thus far with food catered by him.

Clove Catering manager Siti Noor Yusuf, 43, said the food handling for Covid-19 patients was done carefully because she did not want the food to be delivered in a bad condition.

“We pack food such as nasi lemak and other foods accordingly in the specific packages, to avoid, among others, food going stale. All employees are also required to maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs) for food handling,” she added.

On May 19, MAEPS PKRC director Dr Shahabuddin Ibrahim said his team was ready to open more halls to accommodate the increase in the number of patients to be admitted at the centre, especially from the Klang Valley. To date, five halls had been opened, namely, Halls A, B, C, D1 and DG to accommodate Covid-19 patients from categories 1, 2, and 3.

- Bernama