PUTRAJAYA: 224 medical workers under the Health Ministry tested positive for Covid-19 as of yesterday.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said those infected, however, did not treat Covid-19 patients.
“Our investigations so far showed that none of these infections were caused by the handling of positive cases at Covid-19 wards or the Intensive Care Units used to treat Covid-19 patients at the ministry’s facilities,” he said today.
Noor Hisham said of the 224, 150 cases or 67 per cent, caught the Covid-19 infection from within the community.
He added that 41 cases or 18 per cent have links to patients where 29 have Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI), nine from patients whose conditions were unknown before getting treatment and three from on the ground screening and other activities.
The remaining 33 cases or 15 per cent were still under investigation.
Dr Noor Hisham said their priority was the safety of the frontliners who have worked relentlessly in facing the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said they have taken steps to evaluate the needs of the frontliners and the adequacy of personal protective equipment (PPE); ensuring all SARI and pneumonia cases were treated as Covid-19 cases until proven otherwise; strengthening triaging where evaluation and isolation of suspected Covid-19 patients were conducted at health facilities and giving face masks.
“We will also ensure that the medical personnel treating Covid-19 positive patients don the PPE and those attending to non Covid-19 patients to use the face mask.
“All medical personnel must also practice preventive measures such as hand washing and at least 1 metre social distancing gap,” said Dr Noor Hisham.