17 of 24 residents at eldercare home in Malaysia die of Covid-19

KLANG (Selangor) • A private home for the elderly in Klang, Selangor, lost 17 of its 24 residents to Covid-19 within a span of two weeks recently.

Selangor, Malaysia's most industrialised state, is a hot spot for Covid-19 infections.

The home, Pusat Jagaan Warga Emas Kasih Sayang 2 in Jalan Pekan Baru, lost its first resident three weeks ago, and its latest Covid-19 death occurred a week ago.

The home's owner, Mr Tan Kai Sheng, said all 24 residents - aged between 70 and 90 - as well as the centre's six live-in workers, tested positive for Covid-19.

To make matters worse, three workers at the home ran away and one left.

"One came back and we hired new staff to take care of the old folks," said Mr Tan, who also has another private home for the elderly in Klang.

When contacted recently, assemblyman Teng Chang Khim of the Bandar Baru Klang township said that the district health department had come in to do the necessary after his office alerted it to the situation.

The home is located in Datuk Teng's state constituency.

Mr Teng also said that Buddhist organisation Fo Guang Shan sent six oxygen generators to the home after learning of the cases there.

None of the home's residents is believed to have been vaccinated or registered on Malaysia's Covid-19 MySejahtera app to receive vaccination appointments.

More than 30 million Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in Malaysia as at Saturday, with 55.5 per cent of the total population having received one dose and nearly 39 per cent having received two doses.

The country's daily coronavirus cases have stayed above the 20,000 level for the past week, while deaths have remained above 200 a day over the same period.

It has reported more than 1.5 million infections and 13,000 deaths since the pandemic began.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK