Labuan disaster management committee chairman Rithuan Ismail said its medical equipment and inflatable tents were being removed and that all materials, which belong to the defence ministry and Mercy Malaysia, would be relocated to the peninsula to handle the increasing cases there.

“The dismantling of the medical equipment and tents will be completed today. Some medical equipment like X-ray machines (belonging to the Labuan Hospital) will remain in the premises,” he said.

He said the closure of the field hospital marked a success story for Labuan frontliners in flattening the curve of Covid-19 infections on the federal territory.

“The Labuan healthcare system was at risk of collapsing when the spike in infections reached an alarming level. The field hospital helped us in handling the increase in Category 3 and 4 Covid-19 patients,” he said.

The field hospital, which started operations on June 27, had 100 beds, including four in the transit intensive care unit (ICU). It was manned by eight doctors and 30 paramedics and with the support of Mercy Malaysia, handled Category 3 and 4 patients.

Rithuan said Labuan Corporation’s Multipurpose Hall, which was used to house the field hospital, would be reused as a quarantine and treatment centre (PKRC) and Covid-19 assessment centre (CAC).

“The transfer of Category 2, 3 and 4 patients to the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) quarantine centre and Labuan Nucleus Hospital’s Covid-19 wards from the field hospital was completed last Saturday.

“We expect the quarantine centre operations at the multipurpose hall to commence on Thursday,” he added.

According to Rithuan, the number of active cases in Labuan dropped significantly to 340 as of yesterday, compared with more than 2,000 two weeks ago.

Labuan recorded eight new cases with no deaths today.

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