PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry is targeting to recruit 2,000 retired doctors and nurses to assist the frontliners in facing the Covid-19 outbreak.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry is looking at enhancing its health services, particularly in the management of Covid-19 patients.
“We are in the process to increase our human resources, be it nurses or doctors.
“If medical officers, we have to train them first, hence we are looking at those with experience namely retired nurses and specialists that could assist us,” he said.
He added that the ministry is now working on registering those who were interested to join.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham has reiterated that it is not necessary for the public to wear face masks.
“The need to wear face masks is when you have symptoms, taking care of patients; for example Covid-19 or it is the requirement for you to do so.
“But generally, social distancing is more than enough and it is not necessary for you to wear face masks,” he said.
There were some confusion on the need for the public to wear face masks, as some of them were instructed to do so by the authorities when they were out for groceries shopping, with some banned from entering shops for not donning the face masks.
On reports that a Malaysian has died due to Covid-19 in London, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry has yet to received any information on the matter.