Some ‘early stage’ Covid-19 patients receiving treatment from home - Sabah minister
COVID-19 | Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun confirmed that arrangements have been made for some Covid-19 patients in the state to receive treatment at home.
He told a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today that patients are normally advised to stay at home for their treatment if their symptoms are still manageable...
COVID-19 | Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun confirmed that arrangements have been made for some Covid-19 patients in the state to receive treatment at home.
He told a press conference in Kota Kinabalu today that patients are normally advised to stay at home for their treatment if their symptoms are still manageable.
He said this is one of the several strategies employed to tackle the large number of Covid-19 cases in the state.
“So that will save them from going to a quarantine centre or treatment centre. The whole idea is we want to make sure they won't infect other members, for instance, this works well when say they stay alone, or two of them stay at the same place but are they are able to quarantine themselves.
“The (Sabah) Health Department also provides the arrangement to do the treatment at home if the case is considered probably still at a very early stage,” he said in response to a reporter’s question.
He was asked regarding claims that some patients were not immediately taken to hospital or a Quarantine and Low-risk Treatment Centres (PKRC) but were instead told to remain at home while health authorities called regularly to check on their condition.
The patients supposedly waited for up to a week before being taken to a healthcare facility, and Masidi was asked whether the allegation was true and whether hospitals and PKRCs were full.
Previously, Malaysiakini had reported that some patients had waited for days to obtain Covid-19 test results, and several days more to be admitted to a hospital or PKRC after testing positive for the disease.
One patient in Kota Kinabalu told Malaysiakini asked to be brought to a hospital or PKRC, but a Health Ministry official told her the beds were full and there was no availability.
When asked, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had told a press conference on Oct 18 that the backlog had been cleared.
“We did initially have a backlog but now we have cleared the backlog. That’s the reason why we suddenly see the increase in cases because we have cleared the backlog.
“So, once we have cleared the backlog, we hope that the results will be timely and our staff can trace those positive cases and admit them to the low-risk treatment and quarantine centres or to the hospitals,” he said.
Meanwhile, in response to an earlier question, Masidi said the Sabah Health Department has informed there are still sufficient hospital beds in the state although it is “at maximum”.
“This is because the strategy by the hospitals or Health Department is to place patients in early stages - Stage One or Two - in PKRCs. It helps to kame room for more serious patients to be placed in hospitals,” he said.
For the record, the Health Ministry’s guidelines define Stage One and Stage Two patients as those who have no or mild symptoms of Covid-19. Patients who have developed pneumonia are categorised as Stage Three or above.
As for testing, Masidi said the state currently has a testing backlog of 6,653 samples but has no clear timeline on when the backlog can be cleared.
He previously said on Oct 20 that the state had a backlog of 10,400 samples and hoped it can be cleared in the next three to four days.
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