State health and anti-drugs committee chairman Rahmad Mariman said the field hospital will also cater for non-Covid-19 patients and allow the hospital to fully focus on Covid-19 treatment.

He said that until last Wednesday, bed usage at Melaka Hospital was at 90% for regular patients while Covid-19 bed usage was at 91%, or 400 out of 444 beds.

Melaka has been reporting more than 200 cases a day for most of the last week with 358 cases on Wednesday.

“Almost all of the space in Melaka Hospital has been used for treatment, including all zones in the emergency department, meeting rooms, stores, while tents have been mounted in the ambulance parking lot to accommodate Covid-19 patients.

“The federal government yesterday approved Melaka’s request to establish a field hospital,” he told reporters after visiting the drive-through vaccination centre (PPV) at the Melaka international airport (LTAM) in Batu Berendam here today.

Rahmad said the field hospital would have the capacity of accommodating up to at least 100 non-Covid-19 patients.

He said it was among the preparedness measures taken for Covid-19 treatment besides efforts to reduce the use of critical beds to below 70% to achieve the criteria to move into Phase 2 of the national recovery plan.

Rahmad said two more district hospitals, namely in Alor Gajah and Jasin, were now forced to accommodate Covid-19 patients from this week.