ALOR SETAR: The Sultan Abdul Halim Hospital in Sungai Petani had to be thoroughly sanitised after 30 healthcare workers there contracted Covid-19 but will soon be ready to receive patients.

       "The hospital is not facing any problem (of accepting Covid-19 patients)," said state Health and Local Government Committee chairman Datuk Dr Mohd Hayati Othman on Thursday (July 8).

       However, its specialist clinics will only be reopened in two weeks' time and all related appointments would have to be rescheduled, he said.

       On the infected workers, he said those in stages three and four would be warded while those in stages one and two have been told to undergo home quarantine.

       “Actually the numbers are not high but the matter was widely publicised,” he said.

       “The incident made this hospital become the centre of attention, and it caused anxiety among locals," he added.

       It was earlier reported that 30 members of the hospital staff comprising doctors, nurses and cleaners had contracted Covid-19.

       Dr Mohd Hayati had said that the hospital would neither be closed nor put under the enhanced movement control order because of the infections.