PETALING JAYA: Private hospitals are reporting an increasing trend of paediatric Covid-19 patients in their wards in the last two weeks.

       Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said there were also some private hospitals that have not reported any paediatric Covid-19 admissions but a number of positive cases with very mild symptoms.

       “Almost all private hospitals have not reported a huge number of complicated Covid-19 paediatric patients with Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) associated with Covid-19 but there have been a few cases that progressed into this complication and it could be alarming if there is an increase.

       “Paediatricians in the private hospitals have been updated on the management of the complications and the association will be conducting webinars presented by public hospital paediatricians within the week,” he said on Wednesday (Feb 23).

       Dr Kuljit said vaccination programmes for children between five to 11 years old had commenced in some private hospitals and strongly urged parents to get their children vaccinated quickly once a date was fixed.

       “It is very important to protect children from getting complications due to Covid-19 as MIS-C can be a challenge to manage and treat,” he said in a statement.

       Meanwhile, Dr Kuljit said there was an increase in normal private ward admissions with Category 1 to Category 3 adult Covid-19 patients but the ICU admissions had been small compared to that during the wave in the middle of last year.

       “Our small number of ICU admissions are for patients with co-morbidities, or those who have yet to complete their booster doses or are unvaccinated,” he said.

       Dr Kuljit also stressed that private hospitals had never used Ivermectin to treat Covid-19 patients since the start of the pandemic.

       “We will stick to evidence-based treatment with guidance from the Health Ministry,” he said.