No plans to activate MAEPS Covid-19 hospital yet, says DG

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry has no immediate plans to activate its temporary Covid-19 hospital at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS).

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry is currently able to handle asymptomatic and mild symptom Covid-19 patients in Selangor.

“We have allocated 466 beds at the National Leprosy Control Centre in Sungai Buloh for asymptomatic and mild symptom Covid-19 patients.

“When there is a need, when Selangor has a spike in cases or has low-discharged cases, we may look into setting up the temporary hospital in MAEPS. However, there are no such plans at the moment.

“It will only take three to four days to set up one. Thanks to past experience, the ministry is able to identify locations that are suitable for becoming low-risk quarantine and treatment centres,” he told a press conference today.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry has activated 19 low-risk quarantine and treatment centres in Sabah to treat Stage One and Stage Two Covid-19 patients.

Stage One refers to patients who are positive but asymptomatic. Stage Two, meanwhile, refers to patients who are positive albeit with mild symptoms.

He said the experience in handling low-risk quarantine and treatment centres at MAEPS would help the current situation at Sabah facilities.

Source: NST