KUCHING: The process to renegotiate and convert some hotels here from quarantine centres to quarantine and low-risk treatment centres (PKRCs) has commenced, said Local Government and Housing Minister Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He also expressed his gratitude towards various departments and institutions, namely Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), Sarawak Heart Centre, the State Health Department (JKNS), Divisional Health Offices, Resident’s Offices, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) and the Public Works Department (JKR) Sarawak, for their efforts to get more PKRCs ready urgently.
He said the urgent need for PKRCs is due to the surge in Covid-19 positive cases in Kuching and Samarahan in the last 14 days.
He said the PKRCs that were recently set up here are at Kolej Sains Kesihatan Bersekutu (KSKB), Youth and Sports Complex badminton court, Malaysian Health Ministry Training Institute (ILKKM), Asrama Sakura of Taiyo Yuden, as well as the capacity expansion of Rafflesia Residential College, Unimas from 200 to 600 beds.
“It is in the spirit of solidarity and united war effort,” the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor said in a Facebook post on Monday (June 7).
Dr Sim added that cases with no symptoms or mild symptoms of Covid-19, after assessment by medical experts from the Health Ministry’s (MoH) Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC), will be quarantined at home.
He said however, this is only if the environment at home is suitable, along with daily monitoring via phone call from MoH CAC medical officers and two daily checks by the special enforcement team.
“Though we continue to optimise the capacities of the CAC, PKRCs, and SGH to absorb the surge in Covid-19 patients in Kuching-Samarahan, there is always a limit on how much we can expand — not so much of the physical aspect but more of the manpower resources.
“There is a limit on how much we can stretch and there is a breaking point.
“No words can repay what our medical frontliners and other non-medical frontliners did for us. They have endured more than a year of the pandemic, suffering in silence daily and continuing with their professionalism to save the lives of fellow Sarawakians,” he said.
As such, Dr Sim urged everyone to play their parts, especially during these critical two to four weeks.
