Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases admitted to ICU have almost reached 1,200 – Health DG

Medical personnel attending to patients at the Intensive Care Unit. – File photo from Dr Noor Hisham’s Facebook page.

KUCHING (May 30): Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) have almost reached 1,200, the highest number since the start of the pandemic last year, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said in a Facebook post today that these ICU cases included those confirmed, under investigation and awaiting results, both suspected and probable.

He said the Ministry of Health (MoH) had been gradually increasing the capacity of ICU beds for Covid-19 patients since the second wave of this health crisis.

Dr Noor Hisham said three weeks into May this year, a total of 439 additional ICU beds had been provided to cope with the rising needs.

“As a whole, the number of ICU beds reserved for Covid-19 patients, for confirmed, suspected and probable cases, has reached 1,114 beds.”

According to him, most ICU beds are being used for Covid-19 patients. Hence, he said there is a slimmer chance of non-pandemic patients receiving intensive care.

He pointed out that the pandemic situation in the country is getting more distressing, especially for healthcare workers and non-Covid-19 patients.

Even though the number of ICU beds for Covid-19 patients had been increased, he said the ICU bed utilisation rate still exceeded 100 per cent.

“This has resulted in some patients having to be treated in regular wards. With the increasing number of new cases daily exceeding 9,000 cases, the number of patients in need of intensive care is also expected to continue to rise.”

Dr Noor Hisham said the MoH will continue to identify more spaces in the hospital to provide ICU beds, medical equipment and other necessary facilities.

Despite so, he said manpower was among the major challenges given that many healthcare personnel had already been mobilised to perform other duties in the fight against Covid-19.

He added that MoH personnel of various categories including surgeons in several hospitals had been deployed to treat Covid-19 patients.

“Let’s stay home. If you have important business to attend to, make sure to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP) so as to protect yourself and your family members. We shall take care of ourselves,” appealed Dr Noor Hisham.

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