KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — Health care workers who still showed up at work with Covid-19 symptoms may have infected others in hospitals, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.
According to the Health director-general during his briefing on Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases today, health care workers who have symptoms of Covid-19 should not go to work and take leave instead.
“The infection is already in the community and when there’s infection, those with symptoms by right should not go to hospital or [should] take leave, but there are those who have the infection, have symptoms, and still go to the hospital,” Dr Noor Hisham said.
“There are some who don’t wear masks for example, so the infection occurs in the hospital.”
He stressed: “This is a reminder to each individual or health care worker to comply with the standard operating procedure (SOP).
“Sometimes, maybe we take it easy and when we enter the pantry or when we eat, then these steps are forgotten at that time, then infection can happen.”
Hence, the Health director-general urged and reminded all health care workers to comply with the SOP, especially with the use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Dr Noor Hisham also said that two clusters have been identified in Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR), Klang — Batu Sembilan cluster and Yayasan cluster. The Ministry of Health (MOH) facility has reported 143 Covid-19 cases as of yesterday, affecting 62 medical staff and 81 patients.
According to the Health director-general, the Yayasan cluster started from a haemodialysis patient who infected a health care worker, and from there it had spread to others. The cluster so far has 60 positive Covid-19 cases.
Earlier today, two anonymous sources who work at HTAR told CodeBlue that an outbreak had occurred in the nephrology department, but they also mentioned that all renal failure patients are screened for Covid-19 using the RTK-Ag method, while all haemodialysis units are sanitised.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said that the Batu Sembilan cluster was a community-linked cluster that was detected in the food unit in HTAR and has led to 10 positive Covid-19 cases.
On the other hand, the Covid-19 outbreak in Serdang Hospital is linked to the Lestari cluster. Dr Noor Hisham said that it started when a patient from an old folks’ home infected a health care worker at the public hospital. Serdang Hospital has reported 65 Covid-19 cases as of yesterday, involving 37 hospital staff and 28 patients.
