LABUAN, June 3 — The Labuan COVID-19 Integrated Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) is officially closed today after operating for one year, seven months, and five days.
The centre at Labuan Multipurpose Hall was handed over back to the local authority of Labuan Corporation (LC) in a simple ceremony witnessed by heads of Labuan enforcement agencies, namely the National Security Council, the police and the Civil Defence Force.
Labuan Health Department director Dr Ismuni Bohari said the closure of the PKRC was made possible after the island recorded less than five cases of COVID-19 daily.
“As Labuan is recording lesser cases of COVID-19 over the past several months, and since Malaysia has also entered the endemic transition phase, the time has come to close the centre.
“The PKRC has been operating smoothly despite surpassing its capacity of almost 2,000 patients since it commenced operation on Oct 29, 2020,” he told Bernama.
Dr Ismuni said the PKRC, strategically located between the town centre and villages and residential areas, had been turned into a COVID-19 field hospital on June 27 last year.
“That (establishment of field hospital) was after Labuan was worst hit by a sudden surge in positive cases COVID-19 and attack of Delta variant, and with deaths occurring daily.
“With dedicated healthcare personnel, frontliners and a high vaccination rate, Labuan won the battle against COVID-19, and since then, the number of patients undergoing quarantine at the centre has reduced gradually,” he said.
Dr Ismuni said the centre had greatly helped the healthcare personnel handling the daily increase in the number of COVID-19 patients.
“With the PKRC, we managed to reduce the number of quarantine centres from four to one,” he said.
Meanwhile, Dr Ismuni said the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) at the Membedai Health Clinic is still operating handling COVID-19 related-issue.
