KOTA BHARU: The use of 11 COVID-19 wards at Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital (HRPZ II) here has reached 98 per cent, hospital director Datuk Dr Selasawati Ghazali said.

She said that the hospital only prepared one ward with 14 beds for COVID-19 patients, with four beds for the intensive care unit (ICU), in mid-March but increased the number of wards to 11 as cases in Kelantan rose.

"Currently, the number of beds in normal wards is 198, while 238 beds are for COVID-19 patients," she said, adding that the hospital was forced to increase the number of beds in the COVID-19 ICU from four to 42.

Dr Selasawati said the hospital had been designated a hybrid hospital and would continue admitting non-COVID-19 patients.

She said the situation was rather stable for non-COVID-19 cases as patients could be transferred to other district hospitals and Universiti Sains Malaysia (HUSM) Kubang Kerian Hospital.

For COVID-19 patients, she said the hospital needed to consider adding beds for patients with severe symptoms according to necessity.

-- BERNAMA