KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — The government’s decision to order over 20,000 people diagnosed as Covid-positive to observe quarantine at home had worked in reducing the strain on public hospitals and dedicated centres, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.
The Health director-general pointed out that this was only done for those considered at low risk for health complications by the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC), established to monitor the condition of positive patients quarantining at home.
“I believe this number helped provide relief to the PKRC and other quarantine centres,” he said, referring to the designated Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centres (PKRC).
Dr Noor Hisham said in the first week of February, there were 28,412 low-risk patients placed under home quarantine and that the number declined further to 19,800 patients in the second week of February.
“The overall bed occupancy at Covid-19 hospitals has dropped to 47 per cent, while overall bed occupancy in PKRC dropped to 37 per cent, overall Covid-19 bed occupancy dropped to 38 per cent.
“For Covid-19 patients under intensive care, the occupancy is at 55 per cent at the moment; at one point it almost reached 80 to 90 per cent. Now the accommodation at these places has been enhanced,” he said in a press conference from Putrajaya this evening.
The Health Ministry introduced home quarantine as a measure to address overcrowding at hospitals.
Those who are deemed suitable to undergo home quarantine will be isolated for 10 days.
All patients will wear a wristband during their isolation period at home and they must perform self-monitoring during the isolation period through a Home Assessment Tool provided by CAC.
CAC started on January 25. To date, there are 152 branches operating nationwide. Overall, 60,052 patients have been monitored by the CAC.
