James Kon
With the current COVID-19 situation under control and the number of patients receiving treatment at isolation centres continuing to decrease, the Ministry of Health will close two isolation centres while the others will remain on standby.
This was shared by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar during the daily press conference yesterday. The isolation centres that will be closed are COVID Holding Area Belait (CHABEL6) on April 1 and COVID Holding Area Mahad (CHAM)
on May 1.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham said, “Only the National Isolation Centre (NIC) remains operational to accommodate COVID-19 patients.“
“The COVID Holding Area Tutong (CHAT) at Sufri Bolkiah Secondary School, Tutong District and COVID Isolation Centre (CIC) at Community Isolation Centre at National Service Programme (PKBN), Temburong will continue to be kept on standby as places of preparation if the number of COVID-19 cases increase again,” he added.
Due to the closure of the isolation centre, “the number of beds reserved to treat COVID-19 cases will also decrease,” he said.
“Therefore, the capacity of isolation centres will be reduced from 1,846 beds at this time to 1,098 beds on May 1.
“With that, the calculation of the bed occupancy rate at isolation centres nationwide is likely to show a significant increase starting from those dates.”
