GEORGE TOWN: Penang recorded a total 119 'brought-in-dead' (BID) cases in the first eight months this year, which is about 20 per cent of the total Covid-19 deaths here.
State Health Committee chairman Dr Norlela Ariffin (PKR - Penanti) said, of the total, 77 of the BID cases were men and 42 women.
She said, from the 119 BID cases, 95 or 79.8 per cent were Malaysians while 24 or 20.2 per cent were non-Malaysians.
"Twelve of the BID cases were fully vaccinated while the vaccination status for the remaining 107 BID cases was incomplete.
"The BID cases involved a child, 17 young adults, 71 matured adults and 30 elderly," she said in her winding up speech at the state legislative assembly sitting here this afternoon.
Norlela said, based on statistics, the most number of BID cases were reported in the northeast district at 36, Seberang Prai Tengah district (30), southwest district (20), Seberang Prai Utara district (20) and Seberang Prai Selatan district (13).
"Just like all of you (elected representatives), I am also worried about the increasing number of BID cases in the state. This is why I have mooted the formation of a Covid-19 command centre and emergency care line.
"The Covid-19 emergency care line will be in touch with patients who are on home quarantine to conduct assessments. If the patient's condition worsens, we can proceed with the next course of action," she added.
Norlela said during the same period, the state also recorded 31 Covid-19 cases of the Delta variant, of which 16 were in the southwest distict, Seberang Prai Tengah (nine), northeast district (four) and one case each in the Seberang Prai Utara (SPU) and Seberang Prai Selatan (SPS) districts.
In a related development, Norlela said Penang would receive more than one million doses of the Covid-19 vaccines from the federal government this year, with the first batch of 360,000 doses expected to arrive tomorrow.
She said the state would receive more than 767,000 doses of Pfizer, Sinovac (200,000), AstraZeneca (40,000) and the single-dose Cansino (15,000).
"These vaccines can be used to ensure the remaining 160,000 people in Penang who have yet to receive the first dose of vaccine will be vaccinated and to administer the second dose to others," she added.
Several backbenches also pressed Norlela for more low-risk patient quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC) for Categories One and Two patients in the state, expressing worry that more than 7,000 people are currently placed under home quarantine.
M. Satees (DAP - Bagan Dalam) said there was a need for more PKRC due to the surge in Covid-19 positive cases in the state as well as the high number of BID cases.
To this, Norlela proposed that PKRC be set up in hotels, which can be funded by the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma).
"As it is, Nadma is already paying RM50 a day for a person who is currently placed at PKRC. So, maybe Nadma can help fund the quarantine in hotels as well, which is meant for those in Categories One and Two.
"I have received 13 applications to set up private PKRC but so far only two are willing while the rest have withdrawn after being unable to meet the strict criteria.," she added.
Gooi Hsiao-Leung (PKR - Bukit Tengah) also proposed for factories to set up their own on-site PKRC rather than using houses in residential areas as quarantine centres.