KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Health Department is taking action to improve conditions at three quarantine centres where those quarantined have complained about facilities and conditions.

Sabah Health director Datuk Dr Christina Rundi said steps were being taken by the relevant authorities to improve the conditions at the Bomba Academy in Sepanggar, Health Ministry Training Institute in Bukit Padang and Kota Kinabalu Polytechnic here.

“We apologise for the inconvenience, ” she said following public complaints about the poor and unhygienic conditions at the three quarantine centres here.

Dr Rundi also disclosed that that the operator of the Monaco Boutique Hotel in Sadong Jaya here has allowed the premises to be used as the latest quarantine center for Kota Kinabalu.

“We now have a total of 20 quarantine centers all over Sabah with 658 people still being observed by the medical authorities, ” she said, adding that 18 people have been released after testing negative for Covid-19.

In a related development, senior local surgeon Chong En Leong has sent a legal notice to the Health Minister with regard to the conditions at the Sepanggar Quarantine Station.

Chong, who appointed Yap Chin & Tiu Advocates & Solicitors, in his notice, is seeking a judicial review to compel the relevant authorities to do their public duties to clean and upgrade the station up to the standard of an “ordinary person.”

He claimed that current conditions endangered residents there, especially if any of them were positive for Covid-19.

“Even those not infected may end up infected if one them is positive, ” he said in his notice, adding that in many other countries, quarantine centres were in hotels and serviced apartments with medical officers monitoring the residents and food adequately provided.