‘Sabah Covid-19 beds 99.5 pct full’ claim based on wrong calculation
Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun said his statement last week that beds allocated for Covid-19 patients are nearly full is incorrect due to a mistake in calculating the figure.
He said only 3,796 beds (52.5 percent) allocated for Covid-19 patients are currently being used, out of 7,237 beds that are available. The figure includes both hospitals and Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC)...
Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun said his statement last week that beds allocated for Covid-19 patients are nearly full is incorrect due to a mistake in calculating the figure.
He said only 3,796 beds (52.5 percent) allocated for Covid-19 patients are currently being used, out of 7,237 beds that are available. The figure includes both hospitals and Low-Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC).
Likewise, he said only about half of the available beds were in use on Oct 22 when he provided the wrong figure, out of the 5,651 beds available at the time.
“I need to make this explanation so that there is no misunderstanding and to correct that figure. This mistake was unintentional, and I hope the explanation today would correct that statistic.
“For information, the number of beds available in Sabah is constantly increasing as new PKRCs are being opened,” he told a virtual press conference today.
On Oct 22, Masidi had told reporters that 5,624 out of 5,651 beds for Covid-19 patients were already in use, which meant an occupancy rate of 99.5 percent.
Today, Masidi said the error occurred when the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases was used in the calculation, rather than the number of active cases.
This meant that the earlier figure did not account for Covid-19 beds being freed up as patients recover from the disease and are eventually discharged.
When asked, however, Masidi said he did not have the breakdown of the figures by district or by type (hospital beds versus PKRC beds).
There are currently 35 PKRCs in Sabah, he said, with two more being set up that would add 350 beds to the available capacity.
For the record, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had denied claims that the healthcare system in Sabah has been stretched to the breaking point.
He said on Oct 26 that only 52 percent of hospital beds and 28 percent of PKRC beds were occupied.
On another matter, Masidi said the bed occupancy Armed Force’s field hospital in Tawau hovers around 30 percent.
It has treated 142 patients so far, with 28 currently receiving treatment.
For the record, the hospital was set up to receive non-Covid-19 patients, including paediatric care, gynecologic care, and surgery.
It began operations on Oct 20 with an initial capacity of 100 beds, so Tawau Hospital can focus on Covid-19 patients who require intensive care.
Asked if similar field hospitals would be set up elsewhere in Sabah, Masidi said there are no plans at the moment though this may change if the need arises.
Nevertheless, he said the Armed Forces are setting up a medical treatment centre at Kepayan Prison in Kota Kinabalu to help cope with the Covid-19 outbreak there.
According to today’s Health Ministry figures, there are currently 1,670 cases in the Kepayan Prison cluster, including a new case reported today. All the cases are still considered active cases. This is out of 3,491 people screened so far.
