KOTA BHARU, May 25– The Raja Perempuan Zainab II Hospital (HRPZ II) is now conducting almost 1,000 COVID-19 test daily, said its director Datuk Dr Selasawati Ghazali.
She said the tests, carried out at the HRPZ II laboratory, had started to increase since April.
“Previously, only 200 to 300 (samples) were tested every day, but starting in April, the number of tests increased by almost 1,000 daily due to the increase in the number of hospital patients.
“The 4,300 hospital staff are now working 24 hours a day as they have to deal with problems related to COVID-19 infection. Therefore, we hope the community will continue to adhere to standard operating procedure (SOP) because it can definitely reduce infections,” she told reporters at HRPZ II today.
In another development, Dr Selasawati said HRPZ II now had to limit the number of accompanying persons at the hospital to prevent any COVID-19 infection.
She said the move was taken due to the increase in COVID-19 cases and only patients who really needed a companion would be allowed and the accompanying person had to be certified free of the symptoms of the virus infection.
“Those (accompanying persons) must undergo a screening test first to confirm that they are negative COVID-19.
“Previously, the hospital had already put a limit to the number of visitors and accompanying persons protect the ward and now we need to tighten it further so that there is no spread of infection in the hospital,” she said.
