SIBU: The increase in Covid-19 patients, mostly for Category 3 and 4 cases, should not be taken lightly, warned Dr Annuar Rapaee.
The Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (DDMC) coordinator added that it could get worse there was still lack of awareness in communities.
While updating the Covid-19 cases in Sibu through his social media site on Saturday (Oct 9), he said individuals should play their respective roles and responsibilities to reduce the cases under the categories that required hospital treatment.
Dr Annuar, who is also Public Health and Housing Assistant Minister, said that the Sibu Hospital was prepared for the future situation if patients in Category 3 and 4 increased for hospital admission.
“Although cases in these categories are still low despite increasing by a small percentage, DDMC does not want to be too comfortable and assumes it can cause problems later on.
“Therefore, the establishment of the Sibu Malaysian Armed Forces Field Hospital is a preparation for us to face such a situation.
“Besides that, a medical team from the Selayang Hospital, Selangor will help us here to manage Covid-19 in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the Sibu Hospital,” explained Dr Annuar.
The Education, Science and Technology Research Assistant Minister said the increased likelihood of Covid-19 patients in Category 3 and 4 was due to the delay in hospitalisation after experiencing symptoms.
He also expressed his concern over the brought-in dead (BID) cases which tended to come from these categories.
“Patients quarantined at home should always be in touch with the hospitals or doctors. They must act quickly when there are symptoms.
“This awareness is important to save you,” said Dr Annuar, hoping that people would continue to play their roles and responsibilities in reducing the infection cases.
Apart from that, the Nangka assemblyman explained that although the new Covid-19 cases in Sibu showed a decrease from Oct 3 to Oct 9 with 919 cases compared to the period from Sept 26 to Oct 2 with 1,633 cases, it did not mean that the public could feel comfortable.
He stressed that Categories 3 and 4 Covid-19 cases were starting to show an increase, adding that new Covid-19 cases in Categories 3 to 5 had increased by 2.4 percent lately
During the Covid-19 update, he said of the 117 cases recorded in Sibu, there were 43 Category 1 cases, 71 Category 2 cases, one Category 3 case and two Category 4 cases.
“To reduce the number, it is important to strictly adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOPs), there is no other way.
“It is up to the people. Please discipline yourself to follow the guidelines. I hope everyone can play their roles and responsibilities for us to work together to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases, not only for Sibu but Sarawak as well,” added Dr Annuar.
