Raja Perempuan Zainab ll Hospital here has frozen Hari Raya leave for its frontline staff, including nurses, following the spike in dengue cases in the state.
Its director, Datuk Dr Ghazali Hasni Md Hassan, said the hospital was forced to freeze leave for essential staff.
This is because of a rise in the number of cases, especially over the past few weeks.
It was recently that 3,468 cases had been reported in the state up till July 12 compared with 2,898 cases the previous week.
There has been an increase of nearly 400 percent of cases since early this year compared to the same period last year.
“We expect there will be about 1,000 staff working on Hari Raya.
“We have ordered food for the figure to feed those who are working on the first day of Raya.”
Dr Ghazali Hasni said presently there were about 130 dengue patients in two wards and several others in the intensive care unit.
State health director Datuk Dr Ahmad Razin Ahmad Mahir recently told that the Kota Baru district accounted for about 80 per cent of the dengue cases followed by Tumpat 8.5 per cent and Bachok 3.1 per cent.
He said the number of beds in hospitals in the state was
adequate to accommodate dengue patients.