Temporary Covid hospital in Labuan for low-risk patients

LABUAN: The Labuan Health Department has set up a temporary Covid-19 hospital for low-risk patients which will begin operations this weekend.

Its Director, Dr Ismuni Bohari, said it will have 150 beds and help ease congestion at Hospital Labuan.

“We are aggressively doing targeted screening so are expecting a surge of 20 to 30 cases per day in the next couple of days and continuing into next week.

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“The Hospital Labuan capacity has increased to 190 beds, which is the maximum capacity … it will not be able to accommodate more than that, so we hope to open the temporary hospital by tomorrow or the latest, Saturday,” he said on Wednesday.

Dr Ismuni said the temporary hospital which is located near Hospital Labuan was set up with the National Security Council (NSC) and local authority.

“We must be prepared for the surges … looking at the drastic figure from Sept 26 to Oct 27  – 32 days – Labuan has recorded 319 cases. Before the mandatory screening started at Labuan’s entry points – the ferry terminals and airport – on Sept 27, we only had 27 cases,” he said.

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Dr Ismuni said 864 samples were collected Tuesday (Oct 27), bringing the total number collected from Sept 27 - Oct 27 to 23,870.  A remaining 5,950 samples are still being analysed.

Labuan has six clusters with the new Limbungan cluster (a shipyard) with 20 cases identified on Oct 27. It is the second biggest after the Saguking cluster with 162 cases. 

Labuan  – Malaysia’s international business and financial centre, as well as oil and gas hub — has been recording double digit cases over the last few days with 76 new cases recorded yesterday (Oct 27) and bringing the tally to 346 cases.

A Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) is in force there until Oct 30.