No health personnel infected while treating COVID-19 patients - Health DG

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this was because they adhered to all preventive measures as well as wearing personal protective equipment while carrying out their duty.

"A total of 181 MOH personnel are infected with the virus with two deaths, but the records showed that the two death cases had a travel history to Turkey and Indonesia, and were not related to infection at work.

"Of the 181 cases, 67 per cent or 122 were infected outside hospitals, such as after attending weddings and then they came to work with some of them infecting their colleagues with the virus," he said at a news conference on COVID-19 today.

Dr Noor Hisham said that in response to an allegation by a private hospital doctor that MOH had failed to protect its frontliners after some 30 medical personnel were reported to have been infected with the virus while on duty.

Dr Noor Hisham explained that the infection involving health personnel had started at private hospitals and subsequently the ministry held two meetings with the private hospitals and clinics on March 1 and 12 to improve the preventive measures.

However, investigations had found that 36 health personnel were infected with COVID-19 by patients who did not disclose that they were close contacts of high-risk individuals.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that as a precautionary measure, MOH has been conducting periodical health screenings on 20,000 health personnel including those from private facilities.

"We don't wait until they have symptoms to conduct health screening but we do it periodically," he said.