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Penang's Covid-19 call centre to begin operations next week

GEORGE TOWN: To further improve the response time in monitoring Covid-19 patients and those under home quarantine, Penang has set up a new Covid-19 call centre.

Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow said the new call centre, which will come under the state emergency response team headed by Phee Boon Poh, would begin operations on Sept 15.

"The latest initiative is an addition to the existing hotlines such as the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) call centre, the Penang Covid-19 Unified Command Centre (PUCC) and PgCare Alliance Careline," he said today.

For a start, there will be five lines in operation at the call centre at level 24 of Menara Komtar. It will operate between 8am and 5pm daily, including weekends.

Chow said the operating hours may be extended to 10pm, if the need arises.

"In general, the call centre will be given a list of patients placed under home quarantine by the state Health Department and it will coordinate the needs of those who are found positive and placed under home quarantine and related matters," he added.

The operations at the call centre will be in four languages – Bahasa Malaysia, English, Mandarin or Hokkien, and Tamil.

It 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.

Chow said the call centre was formed in collaboration with the state Health Department, the Civil Defence Force, the state National Security Council and other relevant agencies.

Penang has been seeing a surge in the number of daily Covid-19 cases in recent weeks, consistently recording four-digit figures.

The state saw 47 deaths yesterday, the highest since the pandemic first struck the country in March 2020.

Meanwhile, Penang Gerakan chairman Oh Tong Keong said despite reporting over 2,000 cases of Covid-19 for two consecutive days, the state government has not put forward any practical measures to slow down the pandemic.

He said this suggested that the state government wanted the people to "care for themselves".

Oh also said that Phee had warned that the pandemic would continue to heat up in the state in mid-September.

"As such, Phee should use his experience in disaster management to discuss with the Health Ministry as soon as possible to find a plan to slow down the pandemic in Penang. This may include consideration of the statewide lockdown proposed by Komtar assemblyman Teh Lai Heng, during the recently concluded state legislative assembly sitting.

"If the Penang government is going to lock down the state, it must suspend the state's largest factories and construction sites.

"At the same time, the state government has to follow the federal government to provide financial and material assistance to the people," he said today.

Oh also said that besides relying on the federal government, the state government has to seek solutions on its own and should reconsider purchasing vaccine for Penangites.

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