KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 25 — All employers or related parties have been urged to accept a copy of the digital certificate of Home Surveillance Order (HSO) and Release Order (RO) after the patient isolation period ends to avoid congestion at the Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CACs).

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today said based on data at the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), a total of 90 per cent of those attending the CACs were for the purpose of discharge from HSO where there were patients or employers requesting to get a written notice.

"Reports to the National CPRC found that between 30 per cent to 50 per cent of cases at the CACs were not for assessment for cases that deteriorated while undergoing home monitoring.

This leads to an increase in the workload in the CACs where the focus of health workers is on aspects of assessment and treatment of cases that require special attention,’’ he said.

Dr Noor Hisham urged all employers to be sensitive to this matter and accept the HSO and RO digital certificates and not force employees to seek verification from the CACs.

On the percentage of Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage in the hospital, he said six states showed a usage percentage of more than 50 per cent, namely Kelantan (86 per cent), Johor (59), Labuan (57), Kuala Lumpur (54), Sabah (52) and Melaka (50).

Meanwhile, on the positive Covid-19 cases recorded yesterday, he said 32,070 cases were reported with 99.4 per cent or 31,890 cases in categories one and two while 180 cases or 0.56 per cent were in categories three, four and five, adding that a total of 23,332 recovered cases were reported, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 3,018,172.

Categories one and two refer to patients who have no symptoms and mild symptoms, category three involves lung infections, category four involves lung infections and requiring oxygen, while category five refers to critical cases with organ damage and requiring ventilator assistance. — Bernama