50 frontliners contracted Covid-19 from patients or colleagues

The source of the Hospital Likas cluster in Sabah, involving 14 frontliners, could have been a wedding in Ipoh, attended by one of the health workers.

PUTRAJAYA: Fifty medical frontliners have contracted Covid-19 at their workplaces, with the source of infection either from fellow colleagues or while treating patients with the virus.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said these 50 were among the total 275 health workers who have tested positive for the virus so far.

He said 199 of these cases were infections that came from contacts with the community at large.

A significant number of the cases involving health workers have been previously linked to weddings attended by those present at the Sri Petaling Mosque gathering.

Noor Hisham said the source of the Hospital Likas cluster in Sabah, involving 14 frontliners, could have been a wedding in Ipoh, attended by one of the health workers there.

“The first case was reported on March 27. Our probe has found that the source might be an Ipoh wedding attended by one of them, who then returned to Hospital Likas and infected others there,” he said at a press conference today.

He said the source of infection among the 14 might have been from tight and enclosed areas in the facility, such as the workers’ pantry, instead of from outside the hospital, as reported previously.

He said active case detection measures have been taken and those who have been in close contact with the 14 have been isolated and quarantined.

He also said only 10 people have so far tested positive out of an estimated 15,000 of those undergoing mandatory quarantine after arriving from overseas, adding that many have been cleared and discharged. - FMT