MEAPS PKRC reopens for Covid cases

 

The Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS) was reopened last Friday on a small scale with a capacity of 850 beds to accommodate Categories 1, 2A and 2B Covid-19 patients.

The centre, now known as the Central Region Zone Covid-19 Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centre (ZWT PKRC), has received 119 local Covid-19 patients since it reopened.

Unified Command Centre (UCC) assistant commander Dr Ridzuan Mohd Isa said 29 patients had been discharged while the remaining 90 patients, aged between 13 and 50, were still receiving treatment at the centre.

"The quarantine centre has been reopened to reduce the burden of hospitals around the Klang Valley treating Covid-19 patients," he said in a media briefing in Serdang yesterday, adding that patients would be screened at the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) before being sent to the quarantine centre.

Last Thursday (Feb 24) Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that the PKRC at MAEPS was reactivated to treat low-risk Covid-19 cases, namely Categories 1, 2A and 2B.

Covid-19 Category 1 are patients who are asymptomatic while Category 2A are those with symptoms such as sore throat or flu without fever or breathing difficulty but still have appetite, loss of sense of smell, nausea, vomiting, fatigue but could still do daily activities.

Category 2B refers to those with persistent fever lasting two days and more, breathing difficulty when doing activities, chest pain, loss of appetite, feeling tired especially during daily activities or when just waking up and needing assistance when walking.

MAEPS was activated as a PKRC on April 16, 2020 with the intake of Covid-19 patients only involving non-citizen patients for Categories 1 and 2 and then closed on July 15 the same year.

On Dec 9, 2020, the government decided to reactivate MAEPS as a PKRC following the increase in Covid-19 cases, and it was upgraded to PKRC MAEPS 2.0 on Jan 24 by accepting Categories 3 and 4 patients.

MAEPS PKRC 2.0 was officially closed on Feb 8 and during the 14 months of operation, a total of 166,072 Covid-19 patients have been treated.

Meanwhile, ZWT PKRC director Dr Ferwhan Fairis Ab Karim said the operation of the quarantine centre in Hall A was divided into three rooms, namely A1 male patient room with a capacity of 550 beds, A2 (female patient) which can accommodate 300 beds and A3 for administration.

He said the provision of open porches in the male and female patient rooms was an improvement made for ZWT PKRC to give patients the opportunity to relax and indirectly help with their mental health.

"This porch area allows patients to get fresh air and sunlight. There is no need to worry about patients fleeing because the area is equipped with an anti-climb fence.

"From the feedback we had received we found that patients felt depressed previously because they were in a closed and confined space, so these improvements were made to provide comfort to patients," he said.

- Bernama