Surge in cases at Labuan quarantine centre, wards filling up

 

One quarantine centre is full and two others are nearing capacity, the health director said. (Bernama pic)

LABUAN: The number of suspected Covid-19 patients at the three quarantine centres has increased drastically, health director Dr Ismuni Bohari said as the island reported 171 new infections today.

“The Victoria Merdeka cluster involving several shops in the Financial Park Complex, Labuan’s largest mall, and large-group family members contributed to the sudden increase in cases at the quarantine centres,” he said.

He said the increase came after a mass active case detection exercise was conducted in several areas the past few days.

Ismuni said the low-risk quarantine centre at the Higher Education Technology Division hostel (BTPN) has 79 patients (including eight children aged below 12) and the centre is reaching its capacity of 92 beds.

The quarantine centre at Labuan Corporation’s multipurpose hall has reached the capacity of 150, while the high-risk quarantine centre (with capacity of 120 beds) at the Labuan Nucleus Hospital has 83 patients.

This quarantine centre, previously used as a vaccine administration centre was re-opened on May 21, while the one at the BTPN was re-opened two weeks ago.

“We expect an upward trend in positive cases in Labuan this week, as we are doing our risk assessment management as well as active case detection. We hope the more new cases detected, the faster we resolve these,” Ismuni said.

Labuan has recorded a sudden surge in new cases at 171, taking the island’s total to 2,882, with three active clusters and 14 deaths as of today. - FMT