By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Jan 26: The Sarawak government will set up a hybrid modular intensive care unit (ICU) in Sarawak General Hospital permanently to isolate Covid-19 patients while the general hospital operates as usual.
Deputy Chief Ministers Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas and Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian said the unit will be equipped with 36 ICU beds and construction work will start in February.
“Now we try to repurpose (the hospital) to have something more permanent such as setting up the 36 ICU beds.
“When Covid-19 (wave) comes, we can isolate the infected patients here so that the general hospital can operate as normal and stay clean (from Covid-19 infections),” said Dr Sim after visiting SGH with Uggah to review newly installed facilities here today.
Uggah, who is also the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman, said he was happy to see the complete installation of 36 ventilation points in SGH which was funded by the State government.
He said the number of ventilation points were previously insufficient at the hospital so the Sarawak government through SDMC donated RM1.3 million for the installation of additional points.
Meanwhile, Uggah in response to media queries disclosed that Hospital Medan ATM in Kapit which started operations in May 2021 to help treat non-Covid-19 patients, is now closed.
Due to the currently low number of Covid-19 cases, there is at the moment no need for an extra treatment centre when the hospital in Sibu can handle the patient load, he explained.
“We pray that we continue to maintain the current situation so that we can continue with our normal lives very soon.
“Although people still have to wear face masks and we can’t see any smiles, restaurants are open and the facilities like haircutting are there, as well as shopping centres.
“Please enjoy that, but continue to be cautious because we have not won the Covid-19 war yet,” he cautioned.
While conveying his well wishes to those celebrating the coming Chinese New Year, Uggah advised all Sarawakians to celebrate responsibly to avoid Covid-19 case spikes. — DayakDaily
