AT least 36 out of 181 health workers infected with Covid-19 became ill because patients did not inform medical staff of close contact with a positive novel coronavirus case, said Director-General of Health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“The 36 who were infected at the clinic or ICU caught it because the patient did not inform the hospital that they had come into close contact with a Covid-19-positive person. 

“The medical personnel (then) did not use any personal protective equipment while treating that patient,” said Dr Noor Hisham in his daily press briefing in Putrajaya today.

He said this in response to a claim by a private practitioner accusing the authorities of failing to protect medical frontliners attending to Covid-19 patients at public hospitals nationwide.

Earlier today, Dr Musa Nordin of KPJ Damansara Specialist Centre said medical frontliners were at risk of contracting the virus due to the unavailability of personal protective equipment (PPE).

Musa had told Dr Noor Hisham and his team to come out of their ivory tower in Putrajaya and go to the ground and visit affected hospitals.

However, Dr Noor Hisham said that 67% or 122 of the 181 infected healthcare workers contracted the virus outside of the hospital, and that no healthcare worker had become infected while treating patients they knew had Covid-19.

“The two deaths among the healthcare workers also had a history of travelling to Turkey and Indonesia, and hence it had nothing to do with their workplace.”

He said the first infections among healthcare workers began at a private hospital.

Following that, he said the ministry had two meetings (on March 1 and 12) with the private sector to improve safety procedures.

Dr Noor Hisham said public hospital staff are regularly tested for Covid-19.

“We don’t wait for them to develop symptoms before testing. In fact, we have already conducted more than 20,000 tests, but there are only 181 who tested positive for Covid-19.”

Earlier, Dr Noor Hisham announced that 166 Covid-19 patients have been discharged, while 156 new infections have been recorded, the second time this week Malaysia recorded more recoveries than new cases.

He said the total number of Covid-19 recoveries is now 1,487, while the country has logged 4,119 infections of the novel coronavirus that was first reported in China in December and is now spreading worldwide.  

Dr Noor Hisham said two more people have died of the virus – one of them a Pakistani national who had attended the tabligh gathering in Sri Petaling. Sixty-five people have died of Covid-19 in Malaysia so far.

He said 76 Covid-19 patients are in intensive care, with 45 of them needing respiratory support. – April 8, 2020.