COVID-19 continues to spread in Malaysia, with the number of new confirmed cases breaking the 20,000 mark every day. However, most of the confirmed cases are asymptomatic or mild.
As a result, the Ministry of Health has previously announced that only patients with a severity of 2B or above need to go to a COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) or a nearby hospital for further testing.
For Covid-19 patients in categories 1 to 2A, if they are under 60 years old and do not have chronic diseases, they do not need to go to a COVID-19 assessment center and only need to stay at home through the daily Health Assessment Tool (HAT) in the mobile app MySejahtera.
When is it unnecessary to visit a COVID-19 Assessment Center (CAC)?
- A COVID-19 patient under 60 years of age who has no symptoms or mild symptoms and does not have a chronic disease
What patients need to visit a COVID-19 Assessment Center (CAC)?
- over 60 years old elders
- People with chronic diseases
- Patients in categories 2B or above
The Department of Health classifies COVID-19 patients in Malaysia into 5 categories, which are:
- The first stage is Asymptomatic,
- Stage 2 is Symptomatic, No Pneumonia,
- Stage 3 is Symptomatic, Pneumonia,
- Stage 4 is Symptomatic, Pneumonia, Requiring supplemental oxygen,
- Stage 5 is Critically ill with multi-organ involvement
Stage 2 is also subdivided into 2A and 2B, with 2A for mild symptoms and 2B for moderate symptoms.
Symptoms of 2A:
- sore throat or cold but no fever or breathlessness
- cough but no fever or breathlessness
- loss of taste and smell but still appetite
- diarrhea twice within 24 hours,
- nausea and vomiting,
- exhaustion but still able to perform daily activities
- muscle soreness but still able to perform daily activities
Symptoms of 2B:
- Fever for more than two days
- dyspnea on exertion
- chest pain
- loss of appetite
- feeling tired during daily activities or just waking up
- needing assistance with walking
- getting worse such as persistent cough, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea
- decreased level of consciousness
- the gradual decrease in urine output over 24 hours
However, the health ministry also warned that although most of the confirmed cases are mild, patients may deteriorate to severe levels in a few days and require hospital treatment.
Patients in-home quarantine are therefore encouraged to keep an eye on their condition and use MySejahtera’s Health Assessment Tool (HAT) twice a day to answer questions about their condition so that the Ministry of Health can identify the type of illness these patients have and whether they need assistance.
