KUALA LUMPUR, April 22 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) revealed today that 45 private general practitioners (GPs) have tested positive for Covid-19.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said all health care workers in clinics or hospitals must wear face masks when treating patients with pneumonia, influenza-like illnesses (ILI), or severe acute respiratory infections (SARI).
“Those coming to GP clinics for cough and cold, even for running nose, you have to protect yourself,” Dr Noor Hisham told a press conference.
“We are telling our doctors treating SARI patients — all SARI patients will be considered Covid positive until proven otherwise, which means even though you do not have the results, you treat them as a Covid positive patient until you get your results, rather than you treat them without protection, then you get the result later on.”
CodeBlue recently reported a survey among private GPs and family physicians that found significant drops in patient numbers during the Covid-19 crisis. Half of family doctors reported getting only a quarter of their usual patient load, while about 22 per cent reported not getting any patients at all on most days.
Doctors’ groups told CodeBlue that patients may be afraid of getting infected with coronavirus at private clinics.
