GEORGE TOWN, Sept 10 — The Penang government has set up a new Covid-19 call centre to improve the response time in monitoring patients and those under home quarantine from close contacts starting from September 15.

Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the call centre will come under the state emergency response team headed by Phee Boon Poh.

"This initiative is in addition to existing helplines such as the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) Call Centre, Penang Covid-19 Unified Command Centre (PUCC) and PgCare Alliance Careline,” he said in a statement yesterday.

He said the call centre will be given a list of patients placed in home quarantine by the state health department, and coordinate the needs of those who were found positive and placed under home quarantine.

"As a start, there will be five lines at the call centre which will be located on Level 24 of Komtar and it will operate from 8am to 5pm daily, including weekends,” he said.

He said the operation hours will be extended to 10pm if necessary and a special three-digit number will be created and announced in the near future.

The call centre will be communicating in four main languages: Malay, English, Mandarin or Hokkien, and Tamil.

Chow said the operations of the call centre will be headed by a psychology officer from the state secretary’s office and will be assisted by a psychology officer from the Welfare Department.

He said the call centre was formed in collaboration with the state health department, the Civil Defence Department, the state national security council and other relevant agencies.