Hospital resources redistributed out of Klang Valley as Covid-19 epicentre shifts

Some hospitals in the Klang Valley are redistributing resources to other states amid the shifting epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Among the hospitals involved is Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) in Klang, which at one point of the pandemic had to place Covid-19 patients outside the hospital, forcing it to borrow equipment including oxygen concentrators.

With a concerted effort to expedite the vaccination efforts in the Klang Valley, there are signs that the number of daily Covid-19 cases are stabilising after hitting record highs in previous weeks.

However, other states are seeing conditions similar to the Klang Valley when cases started to rise exponentially.

A total of nine states and a federal territory recorded new infections in the four digits, a trend previously only seen in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.

Responding to the changing situation, HTAR is returning 80 oxygen concentrators which it had borrowed, to be distributed to other states.

HTAR, in a Facebook post, thanked the Quarantine And Low Risk Covid-19 Treatment Centre at Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang for loaning the equipment.

"On Aug 20, the number of Covid-19 patients declined and HTAR decided to return all the equipment," it said.

It said the Malaysian Armed Forces will aid in redistributing the equipment to other states which are seeing a spike in Covid-19 cases.

Yesterday, Sabah and Sarawak hit record highs with more than 2,500 cases respectively.

Apart from Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, other regions with new cases in the four digits yesterday include Kedah, Penang, Johor, Kelantan and Perak.

If these states go the way of the Klang Valley, the impact could be more severe as the healthcare infrastructure in some of them are less developed.

According to the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV), more than half of Klang Valley's population have been fully vaccinated after a concerted effort to mitigate the pandemic in the worst-hit region.

With the exception of Labuan, Sarawak, Negeri Sembilan and the Klang Valley (Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya), the fully vaccinated population is under 50 percent.

- Mkini