Day: April 20, 2022

PETALING JAYA, April 20 (Bernama) — The youth branch of the Real Estate and Housing Developers’ Association Malaysia (Rehda Youth), in collaboration with various partners, today handed over the new Women’s Aid Organisation (WAO) Child Care Centre worth RM1.4 million, replacing the previous centre which was burned down in 2016.

Rehda Malaysia acting president Datuk NK Tong said the corporate social responsibility project by corporate and individual donors, volunteers and sponsors, is the nation’s first green child care centre, uniquely built entirely with donated materials, sponsored labour and pro bono consultants.

The Child Care Centre incorporated some masonry, wood, and roof tiles from the previously destroyed building into the facade of the new structure.

“It will be the first Platinum-rated child care centre in Malaysia by GreenRE, a green building certification body,” said Tong at the handover ceremony at Wisma Rehda here, today, witnessed by Segambut Member of Parliament Hannah Yeoh.

“This ensures that the running costs of the centre going forward will be reduced, which will be a great benefit to the WAO which operates entirely on donations,” he said.

Tong further said the child care centre, at an undisclosed location for safety security reasons, would be a shelter for child victims of domestic abuse, and will also be a base for WAO to provide specialised child counselling therapy to traumatised children. It expects to welcome more than 20 children.

“Guided by green design principles, such as ensuring sufficient daylight and natural ventilation, the centre promises to be a comfortable and healing space. Its structure lends to this, with a U-shaped courtyard as its centre symbolising refuge from the outside world,” he said.

Meanwhile, Yeoh said the use of green technology would lessen building and utilities management in terms of cost.

She also urged the government to invest more for the vulnerable groups, especially children, by establishing a children’s ministry specifically, instead of placing them under the purview of the welfare department.

Yeoh also suggested having more child protectors, adding that based on her 2019 data, there is a need for more than 1,500 child protectors nationwide to handle various cases including abuse, neglect and other childcare issues.

At the event, WAO president Shanthi Dairiam said the centre is a place for children to thrive and heal. It aims to provide an environment for children to process their trauma safely, through counselling, therapy with play in a place where their safety and care is the utmost priority.

She hoped more organisations and government bodies will empower young victims of domestic abuse in different parts of the country with such initiatives as access to quality child care comes at a cost, especially to the marginalised.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

TAWAU, April 20 (Bernama) — The Tawau Hospital upgrading project will be completed by the end of this year and as of March 31, progress has reached 70 per cent, said Deputy Works Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup.

He said to ensure that the remaining work on the project could be completed on time, the contractor needed to achieve the work progress target set, which is about 4 per cent every month.

“The target is based on discussions with the contractor and also the monitoring measures taken by the Public Works Department (JKR) to ensure the progress of work is according to the set schedule.

“JKR closely monitors the mitigation plan and the progress of the contractor’s work and the performance of the contractor will also be evaluated according to the weekly work progress report that needs to be sent,” he told reporters after checking on the project today.

Arthur said JKR will also not hesitate to issue a warning to the contractor if there are delays.

“The hospital upgrading project started in 2017 and was scheduled to be completed in 2020 at a cost of about RM210 million but the project was delayed due to the implementation of the COVID-19 Movement Control Orders (MCOs) as well as land structure problems, so JKR allowed Extension of Time (EOT) to the contractor to complete the project.

“The MCOs (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) had led to a chain of problems such as the lack of local and foreign workers as well as difficulties in obtaining building materials due to the closure of factories,” he said, adding that currently, the contractor employed 80 per cent local workers thus reducing reliance on foreign workers.

When the project is completed, Arthur said the upgrading will make Tawau Hospital the largest hospital in the East Coast of Sabah and a referral hospital for the surrounding districts.

He added that the new hospital building under the project will accommodate 154 beds, bringing the total number of beds at Tawau Hospital to 555 , in addition to other facilities provided including six operating rooms, four endoscopy suites, 30 haemodialysis units, as well as the first hospital helipad in Sabah.

He said that his ministry would ensure that the project was completed on time as it was the government’s intention to provide the best health facilities for Keluarga Malaysia (the Malaysian Family) so as to meet the people’s expectations.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KOTA KINABALU, April 20 (Bernama) — A total of 28 non-urgent surgeries scheduled for today at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (HQE) here have been postponed due to the power outage at the hospital since yesterday, said Sabah Health Department director Datuk Dr Rose Nani Mudin.

She said operation theatre services at HQE had to be closed today and tomorrow to ensure adequate and stable electricity supply to wards and intensive care units, while cases requiring emergency surgery would be performed at the nearby Queen Elizabeth Hospital II (HQE II).

“Currently, the concession company is in the midst of repairing the faulty electrical cables so that the power supply can be restored,” she said in a statement today.

Dr Rose Nani said the power outage occurred at 11.54 am yesterday involving the HQE’s twin towers, specialist clinics and old medical building block.

“During the outage, two generator sets supply power to the affected buildings. The hospital, Sabah Health Department as well as the concession company took immediate action to obtain additional generator sets as a backup,” she said.

She added that to ensure HQE’s medical services were not disrupted, a contingency plan had been put into place with the transfer of some patients and those requiring emergency surgery to HQE II.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUCHING, April 20 (Bernama) — Sarawak will roll out the second COVID-19 booster vaccination starting Friday, said Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

Uggah said there would be two categories of recipients qualified for the jabs, namely individuals above 60 year old with high-risk comorbidities as well as moderately or severely immunocompromised individuals aged 12 and above.

He urged those qualified and interested to contact their respective vaccination centres at government clinics, private hospitals and private clinics for appointments.

“They can get the telephone numbers of these centres from the Sarawak Health Department’s Facebook page,” he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Uggah said as of April 19, a total of 1,637,167 or 90 per cent of qualified individuals in the state had received their COVID-19 booster dose.

On April 14, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said individuals aged 60 and above with high-risk comorbidities are now given the option of getting a second booster dose of the vaccine, with an interval of at least four to six months after the date of the first booster dose.

According to Khairy the decision was made after a scientific study and a Malaysian cohort study by the Technical Working Group (TWG) panel, which found that individuals aged 60 and above with higher-risk comorbidities had serious symptoms and death due to COVID-19.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency