Health D-G reminds Malaysia’s frontliners not to drop their guard amid spike in Covid-19 cases
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today expressed worry over the spike in Covid-19 cases involving medical frontliners in both the private and public healthcare sectors, and called for heightened caution.
In a statement today, he said that the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) investigation found that the number of Covid-19 positive cases among MOH health workers are mostly due to the spread among health workers themselves.
“This situation is worrying, because they play an important role as the backbone of the national health system,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said that the infection among frontliners made up 53 per cent of the overall cases involving healthcare workers.
“Infection from the community is 22 per cent, while the current infection rate involving the management of patients whose Covid-19 infection status is unknown, is 17 per cent.
“So far, there are no MOH health workers who were infected with Covid-19 during management of patients confirmed to be Covid-19 positive in the Covid-19 ward, or in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Therefore, it is very important for health workers to ensure that Covid-19 infection prevention measures are observed at all times, especially while on duty,” he added.
Dr Noor Hisham also stressed the importance of physical distancing among health workers while managing patients, and throughout their shifts.
He also highlighted the need to keep common areas and shared spaces such as pantries, staff toilets and nurses’ counters clean at all times.
“MOH would like to remind all MOH health workers who work in hospitals or health clinics to wear a three-ply surgical face mask during working hours.
“Health workers also need to practise hand hygiene, cough etiquette and wear personal protective equipment (PPE) that is appropriate according to their needs, while performing tasks,” he added.
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