By Lian Cheng
KUCHING, Aug 31: The setting up of Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC), home quarantine monitoring and Low Risk Treatment and Quarantine centres (PKRC) are new concepts in medical planning worldwide in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Dato Sri Prof Dr Sim Kui Hian, in general, the virus is only 20-months old while the vaccines and other related treatments which are evolving with experience and more scientific findings are less than 12-months old, but that has not stopped the local authorities from finding ways to deal with such an unprecedented health crisis.
“(We have) not much experience of implementing CAC, PKRC in such an unprecedented scale and volume,” said Dr Sim in a social media post yesterday.
To better tackle the surge of Covid-19 cases brought about by the Delta variant, Dr Sim, who is also Local Government and Housing Minister, said the CAC at Dewan Mesyarakat MBKS Covid-19 One Stop Centre has been relocated to Stadium Perpaduan, Petra Jaya.
The CAC, which is run by the Federal government Health Department, he said, was set to triage all Covid-19 positive patients to risk stratification following clinical examination and blood tests for hospital admissions, PKRC admissions, quarantine centres under Kuching Divisional Health Office management and home quarantine, if patients’ homes are suitable.
All patients who are infected with Covid-19, regardless of whether it involved the Delta variant or other variants, will be treated the same, he reassured.
On Aug 29, 2021, a total of 2,688 Covid-19 positive individuals from Kuching went through CAC’s clinical assessment and were either quarantined or released while on Aug 28, there were 1,840 such individuals been clinically assessed.
In the face of the commitment and sacrifices of medical personnel and other frontliners, the Batu Kawah assemblyman also took the opportunity to show his appreciation to many of whom have been working not only seven days a week straight but have not been taking any days off since March 2020.
“While suffering in silence from the exhaustion, the burnout, family being neglected, (they) soldiered on because of professionalism, (and the noble intention of) saving lives of our fellow Sarawakians.
“(We must all) keep moving on and don’t let those armchair critics and those with evil intentions incite panic or unkind sentiments, (many are still politicking) to distract your focus from Covid-19. Let the results speak for themselves,” Dr Sim told exhausted frontliners.
To the general public, Dr Sim begged for understanding, forgiveness, patience and cooperation for any delay or inconveniences caused.
“As we are in the post vaccination era, its time we live with virus and reopen slowly but safely,” said Dr Sim. — DayakDaily
