Sabah Covid 19 Patients Seek Help From Local Rep After Waiting For Days

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A DAP lawmaker has claimed to have received phone calls from at least 10 Covid-19 patients in Kota Kinabalu who allegedly have been waiting for days to be admitted to a hospital.
DAP Luyang state assemblyperson Phoong Jin Zhe (above) said these patients have been stuck in their homes for between seven days and two weeks from the day they got tested.
"In the past week, I have received calls from at least 10 individuals who claimed to be patients themselves or family members of the patients. They have mild symptoms of the disease but they were not admitted to a hospital after they were tested positive for Covid-19," he told Malaysiakini.
"A man, who completed his 14-day quarantine at home, called me as he doesn't know what to do next. I received phone calls from highrise residential units in Kota Kinabalu asking for help after family members tested positive," he said.
Phoon, who is also Sabah DAP Youth chief, said he could only advise the rest of the family members to undergo a Covid-19 test and in some cases, suggested to them to move out temporarily.
Phoong, therefore, questioned if Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah knew the situation on the ground in denying that Sabah's healthcare system had collapsed as cases continued to spike in the Borneo state.
"While I have no substantive proof, a check on the ground will find there are inadequate ambulances and staff. Why not be frank and tell the people what has happened and issue an SOP on home quarantine," he said, adding the neighbourhood and community were in a panic on learning that Covid patients were not admitted to hospitals.
"If the system has not collapsed, then I would like to ask him why patients have to wait for days before being treated at the hospitals,‘ he said.
"I am not saying the move to ask people to stay at home is wrong, this had happened in the US and UK as their healthcare systems collapsed following the surge of coronavirus cases," he said.
On Oct 26, Noor Hisham reiterated that the healthcare system in Sabah was still functioning as only 52 percent of hospital beds in Sabah were being used, while only 28 percent of beds in quarantine centres were occupied.
Sabah Local Government and Housing Minister Masidi Manjun, however confirmed that arrangements had been made for some Covid-19 patients in the state to receive treatment at home.
Noor Hisham insisted those waiting at home were those who were waiting for their Covid-19 test result.
A woman, only willing to be known as "Lee", said only her father was admitted to hospital after having breathing difficulties on Oct 22, while her mother and two brothers, who all tested positive for Covid-19, were quarantined at their home.
"My mother lost her sense of smell, while my brothers had mild fever and cough," she said, adding three of them tested positive on Tuesday.
While noting she understood the shortage of manpower and resources at hospitals, she pointed out that her family members needed expert advice as to what measures they should undertake.
Similar messages were conveyed on social media where netizens refuted the Health Ministry's claim that the healthcare system in Sabah had not collapsed.
"We are not okay. Some of my family infected with Covid-19 are still staying at home because the hospital has reached full capacity. (They were) told to take the medicines,” said Sharifah Leen Kota A.
"My father was tested positive for Covid a few days ago, with fever and a bad cough. Had to stay at his apartment in KK due to insufficient space at hospitals. How is this a stable condition? I can’t even imagine how many faced the same situation. Sabah is dying and that's a fact," said another netizen, identified as "M".
DG: Beds available, but some patients no longer need to be transferred
Asked about this at his daily briefings today, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there was a "backlog in terms of getting the patient from their homes to quarantine centres".
But this was neither due to lack of beds, nor a change in the Health Ministry's policy to isolate all Covid-19 patients.
He said the backlog actually started in the laboratories, so some individuals had to wait longer than five days to get their Covid-19 test results.
There have been instances where individuals would be symptomatic for 10 days by the time their results came out, and by then, it would not be necessary for them to be isolated because they were no longer infectious.
"If you look into quarantine, if they are well, they can be treated at home [...]
"Some individuals (wait for their results for) seven days, eight days even 10 days, so if 10 days, it is not necessary for us to transfer (them to quarantine centres or hospitals) because the period of infectivity is 10 days," he said.
He said the World Health Organisation's guideline for isolation of Covid-19 patients is 10 days, while Malaysia takes a more conservative stance by isolating patients for 14 days. In Canada, he said, patients are isolated for only seven days.
"(We are) in crisis and these are very extraordinary times. We need to look into extraordinary measures to solve the issues that we face in Sabah," he said.
He said among measures taken was to use Antigen rapid test kits (RTK Antigen) which are not as accurate as the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests but can return results within hours.
Up to yesterday, 349, 870 RTK Antigen tests have been done in Sabah, with 5,563 or 1.6 percent returning positive.
On Oct 27 alone, 3,053 RTK Antigen tests were conducted in Sabah, of which 153 or 5.2 percent were positive.
Meanwhile, some 2992 PCR tests were processed in Sabah yesterday, 15 percent above the capacity of the three labs in the state.
Nationwide, a total 32,113 PCR tests were processed yesterday, or 58 percent of total capacity.  - Mkini

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