The Malaysian Ministry of Health has announced another Covid-19 related death today.
Director-General Noor Hisham, in a press conference also reports 123 new cases bringing the total number of cases to 1,306 and the number of deaths to 10.
As of March 22, there are 3,921 pending cases with 22 cases in the ICU.
“We are moving toward phase 4 which is the mitigation case, this is a small window of opportunity to break the chain of transmission,” says Hisham.
The Health Ministry continues to urge the public to stay at home and to maintain social distancing. Hisham also highlighted initiatives to enhance hospital services with 26 hospitals focusing on Covid-19 treatments.
450 new ventilators ordered from China adding on to the existing 945 ventilators. Additionally, 272 ICU beds and 3,400 beds for isolation have been allocated. The Ministry also added six more hybrid hospitals to treat Covid-19 and emergency cases.
“We will continue to increase beds for the management of Covid-19,” said Hisham.
Furthermore, the Health Ministry will re-distribute and deploy medical staff from other states to aid with the increasing number of cases. Hisham has also pointed out that the government will rehire retirees including nurses and specialists.
“We are also working closely with private hospitals for further engagement,” added Hisham in the press conference.
The Health Ministry has also said that test kit capacity will be increased to 7,000 cases next week and is expected to increase to 16,000 cases in April to detect the virus.
