Don’t go overboard out of Covid-19 fear, says medical group

The MMA president said if necessary precautions are taken, such as regular cleaning of common areas, there was no reason to be fearful.

PETALING JAYA: The head of the Malaysian Medical Association has urged the public not to go beyond the necessary precautions against Covid-19 out of fear, and not to carry out discriminatory practices against healthcare workers.

MMA president Dr N Ganabaskaran said an apartment building management in Petaling Jaya had reportedly segregated a lift for use by medical and essential services workers after a tenant, also a healthcare worker, came down with Covid-19 at the end of March.

He said the action was taken to prevent other residents from getting infected. Ganabaskaran said there should be regular cleaning of common areas, and temperatures of residents should be taken at entrances as precautionary steps.

But segregation at shared facilities such as lifts was unnecessary “and smacks of discrimination against our healthcare workers,” he added. “These kinds of discriminatory practices demonstrate that a serious problem of misinformation exists among the public.”

“If all the preventive measures (recommended by the health ministry) are taken, there should be no reason to fear,” he said.

Some people were going beyond necessary precautionary measures out of fear for the deadly virus, he said. The authorities should investigate such discriminatory practices. - FMT