Page 26 - THE COVID-19 CHRONICLES OF MALAYSIA: Revitalising Recovery
P. 26

The Director-General of Health Malaysia




 Malaysia saw the full wrath of the

 Delta variant during the second
 half of 2021. Despite the
 government's enforcement of
 public health and social measures,

 the number of COVID-19 cases
 continued to surge, peaking at
 24,599 new cases reported on the

 26th of August 2021.


 However, overcoming challenges is   Source: DG Hisham Facebook    §

 what makes life meaningful. Within
 challenges, therein lies   Interagency and intersectoral collaboration, especially with the Ministry of
 opportunities.   Defence, Ministry of Higher Education, private healthcare sector and NGOs,

                cushioned the growing number of COVID-19 patients requiring
 The Director-General of Health has   supplementary oxygen and assisted ventilation. Nationwide, COVID-19
 always formulated its approach   assessment centres introduced virtual consultation for stable COVID-19

 based on the latest science and   patients.
 data as we continuously learned
 more of this novel virus. We   Those at risk were admitted to hospitals for close observation and medical

 adapted our responses accordingly   Overcoming the challenges is   management. Nearly all public hospitals in the Klang Valley were converted
 and worked closely with key   to full-fledged or hybrid COVID-19 hospitals with non-COVID-19 patients
 players across all sectors in the   what makes life meaningful.   outsourced to private medical centres and periphery public hospitals in
 wake of the surge of cases. In   Within challenges, therein lies   nearby states. The Ministry of Health moved steadfastly to create makeshift

 addition, we made granular data   the opportunity.  hospital beds and ICUs. The MAEPS 2.0, which initially served as a
 and insights on COVID-19 publicly   quarantine and low-risk treatment centre, was upgraded with equipment

 accessible via the Ministry of   and human resource to treat category 3 and 4 COVID-19 cases.
 - Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr. Noor Hisham bin Abdullah
 Health's 'GitHub' repository and      §
 'COVIDNOW in Malaysia' websites
 for transparency and data

 accessibility.
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