KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 9): The Ministry of Health (MoH) said there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases among frontliners of late, especially healthcare workers in the public and private sectors.
“The situation is worrying as they play an important role as the backbone of the nation’s health system,” said MoH director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.
He said investigations showed that the positive cases among MoH's staff were largely due to transmissions among the health workers themselves.
Such transmissions contributed to 53% of the total of number of cases involving healthcare workers.
This meant that more than half of the healthcare workers who contracted COVID-19 had been infected by fellow healthcare personnel, said Dr Noor Hisham.
Infections from the community accounted for 22% of total infections among healthcare workers, while infections arising from handling patients whose COVID-19 test results had yet to be known accounted for 17%, he added.
"So far, there is no MoH healthcare worker who has caught the virus while managing patients who are confirmed positive at the COVID-19 wards or at the intensive care unit," the director-general said.
Therefore, he said, it was vital for healthcare workers in both the Government and private sectors to always take precautionary measures, especially when there are on duty.
This includes practising physical distancing and maintaining good hygiene, he said.
New COVID-19 cases in the country dropped to 24 as at noon today, after climbing for two straight days. Total cases stand at 9,583.
Seven patients were discharged during the 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 9,143.
Active cases breached the 300-mark to reach 312, while the death toll remained at 128.