Nadma denies claims of overcrowding at Serdang Covid-19 centre

Images shared on social media showing scores of people crowding the government’s low-risk Covid-19 treatment and quarantine centre in Serdang, Selangor are of patients being discharged, the National Disaster Management Agency, or Nadma, told MalaysiaNow.

Pictures and videos of people queuing up next to beds at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang (MAEPS), which was reopened as a Covid-19 treatment centre last month amid a spike in the number of patients, had created alarm on social media, with many accusing the authorities of ignoring health SOPs.

A spokesman for Nadma, which operates the centre, said the photos were taken just as those who had been confirmed negative for the virus were making their way to the exit.

“There would be about 300 to 400 people discharged at any one time, so that was why it looked as if the place was crowded,” Nadma spokesman Nur Daliza Dohat told MalaysiaNow.

She also dismissed claims by social media users that the centre, which can house up to 10,000 people at any one time, was full and that it had run out of beds.

“There is still bed capacity,” she said, adding that there are presently about 3,000 people at the centre.