JOHOR BARU: The number of Covid-19 cases in the intensive care units (ICU) in hospitals in Johor have exceeded the number of beds allocated.
State Health and Environment Committee chairman R Vidyananthan said there are currently 49 Covid-19 patients being treated in the ICUs in six hospitals in the state, with 39 needing ventilators.
"This exceeded the 43 ICU beds that have been allocated for Covid-19 patients. This means that the utilisation rate currently stands at 114 per cent," Vidyananthan said in a statement.
He said since April 1, all 12 government hospitals in Johor were operating as Covid-19 hybrid hospitals by providing treatment to both Covid-19 and non Covid-19 patients.
"This is to accommodate the need to treat the rising number of patients infected with Covid-19 in the state," said Vidyananthan.
He said the challenges in increasing the number of ICU beds for Covid-19 patients were the limitations in term of manpower and at the same time, the number of critical non-Covid-19 patients needing treatment at ICUs were also high.
Yesterday, Johor recorded 205 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the number of active cases in Johor to 2,092.