Overall, there were fewer than 100 unoccupied intensive care beds in the Netherlands on Tuesday, with 595 taken by Covid-19 patients and another 500 by patients with other illnesses.

Dr Sha’ari Ngadiman responds to a report saying that a new wave of Covid-19 is expected in December.

However, cases in need of ICU treatment increased 2% from the previous epidemiological week.

This comes a day after the city-state expanded quarantine-free travel as it shifts its approach to dealing with the pandemic.

Kedah and Johor are the only states still in the first phase of the National Recovery Plan.

The field hospital for the treatment of severe Covid-19 patients will be manned by 50 armed forces personnel.

The bed occupancy rates in Selangor, Kelantan, Penang and Johor meanwhile are approaching 100%.

Experts provide some suggestions on how authorities can better manage virus outbreaks and what ordinary people themselves can do to ease the strain on the healthcare system.

Hospitals in Bangkok have the capacity to manage 1,000 new patients a day, but authorities say they are well past that number.

Nine people including public hospital staff and the directors of a patient care NGO have been arrested.

Immediate mitigation steps include the further outsourcing of non-Covid-19 patients to private hospitals, to allow Hospital Kuala Lumpur to treat more Covid-19 patients.

The government is also looking into vaccinating those 12 and above but wants to complete the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme first.