USM Health Campus COVID-19 PKRC to open next week

KOTA BHARU: The sixth COVID-19 Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre (PKRC) in Kelantan, capable of housing 500 patients, is expected to be operational next week.

Kelantan PKRC director Dr Mohd Azman Yacob said the latest centre was the result of the cooperation with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and is located at the Kubang Kerian USM Health Campus Main Hall here.

"The latest and biggest centre in Kelantan, known as the USM Health Campus centre, will house 500 male patients around Kota Bharu and clusters from other areas at any given time.

"Preparation work begins today, with 250 double-decker beds having arrived from Kuala Lumpur and being moved into the centre. Insya-Allah we expect the centre to be opened on May 2 or 3," he told Bernama when met at the centre yesterday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also posted about the opening of the centre on his official Facebook account yesterday.

Dr Mohd Azman who is also Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital deputy medical director said the latest centre needed to be opened as the capacity in the other five centres were nearly full.

"Capacity at the five centres are almost full, for instance, the Kota Bharu Nursing College centre has only a single empty bed left from 170, and the centre at the Youth and Sports Complex in Panji only has seven empty beds of 196.

"Meanwhile the Dewan Jubli Perak centre has 35 unused beds out of 150 and the centre at Pusat Tarbiah Islamiah Kelantan (Putik) has 55 beds left from a total of 200," he said.

-- BERNAMA