Covid-19: As deaths rise, Sungai Buloh Hospital needs another freezer container
Sungai Buloh Hospital - the country’s main treatment facility for Covid-19 - has resorted to procuring a second freezer container to deal with the increasing number of deaths.
According to sources privy to the Health Ministry’s plans, arrangements are also being made to convert the nearby UiTM Hospital into a full Covid-19 treatment facility...
Sungai Buloh Hospital - the country’s main treatment facility for Covid-19 - has resorted to procuring a second freezer container to deal with the increasing number of deaths.
According to sources privy to the Health Ministry’s plans, arrangements were also being made to convert the nearby UiTM Hospital into a full Covid-19 treatment facility.
This is to prepare for more patients to come in the weeks ahead.
A source said the hospital’s Forensics Department needed more space to store bodies, as Covid-19 deaths continue to rise every day.
This was despite one freezer container having been installed at the department just earlier this week. The container has a maximum capacity of 20 bodies.
“The hospital is getting another freezer container to prepare for more death cases,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The country started seeing a sudden jump in the number of pandemic-related deaths earlier this month, with a bulk of the cases reported in Selangor.
In the last nine days - between May 12 and 21 - the Health Ministry recorded a total of 427 deaths nationwide, including 144 in Selangor.
Of that number, 49 of the deaths were registered at Sungai Buloh Hospital, including patients who died while receiving treatment and those whose bodies were brought to the facility.
It is learned that the hospital mortuary has a capacity of 18 bodies, making the maximum number of bodies it can keep with the existing freezer container at 38.
Another dedicated Covid-19 treatment facility
Meanwhile, another source revealed that the Health Ministry is cooperating with the Higher Education Ministry to convert the UiTM Hospital into a full Covid-19 treatment facility.
UiTM Hospital in Sungai Buloh is a teaching hospital within the university's campus that houses its Faculty of Medicine and Faculty of Dentistry.
It is located only about 1km from Sungai Buloh Hospital and the National Leprosy Control Centre.
“The UiTM Hospital will not be the main Covid-19 hospital, but rather a back-up facility to ease the congestion at Sungai Buloh Hospital.
“According to the plan, this is to start next month,” said the source in Putrajaya.
The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said another UiTM medical facility located in Puncak Alam would also be roped in to assist by taking in all non-Covid-19 cases from Sungai Buloh Hospital.
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