PUTRAJAYA: Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah admitted that he was under a lot of pressure battling the Covid-19 pandemic for the past 10 months.
He said it was difficult sleeping at night and sometimes he would wake up around 3am or 4am just to think about solutions to the current situation.
"If you ask me if there is a mental fatigue among the healthcare workers, I will say yes, there are. Even those at the Health Ministry are experiencing the same.
"This is due to the relentless battle against the pandemic for 10 months without any holidays coupled with a lot of meetings that require actions to be taken on a daily basis.
"Some might be affected by the stress including the health director-general (Dr Noor Hisham). Nonetheless, all the manpower in the ministry are executing their duties well despite the situation (they are facing every day)," he said at the daily Covid-19 press conference here.
Dr Noor Hisham also said he had a video conference with the healthcare staff in Sabah on Tuesday morning to discuss on issues and problems.
He said those in Sabah were still high spirited to perform their duties and would give themselves a break from the exhausting workload.
"Although we are given the time to rest, sometimes we just couldn't seem to do so. Sometimes (we) will wake up in the wee hours just to figure out the solutions to problems.
"These are all the main challenges that we are facing, whether you are the frontliners or in management (capacity). We are fighting this battle, facing an enemy that we cannot see," he added.
On the current infectivity rate or R-Naught (RO) value, he said the nationwide RO value had reduced to 1.1 today from 1.2 on Tuesday.
However, he said the lower RO value was still not enough as the number of new cases were still increasing.
"I hope with the extension of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) for another two weeks will decrease the (RO) value below 1," he said, adding that the ministry expected the cases in Sabah would reduce within the next 3 to 4 weeks as more efforts were being made to boost the healthcare facilities and services in the state.