Covid-19 patient left in the dark after testing positive

 

Entrepreneur Darren Teoh's swab test returned a positive result for Covid-19.

"The next day, they called me up in the morning. They told me I was tested positive and to get ready to be contacted by the Health Ministry," he said.

For over two weeks, entrepreneur Darren Teoh waited at home for what would come next.

His calls to the Covid-19 hotline set up by the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) went unanswered. His messages to their delegated WhatsApp number were also met with no response.

In the first week of January, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that our nation’s health system had reached its breaking point with daily infections surging higher and higher. With quarantine centres across the country filling up quickly, the government has begun to urge some Covid-19 patients and high-risk individuals to self-quarantine at home instead.

With his bags packed, Darren - who lives on his own - was expecting to be picked up by an ambulance and sent to a quarantine centre like many others who tested positive. After being left in the dark, Darren resolved to his own home quarantine. He did not leave his house for two whole weeks.

“I took a lot of vitamin C and I ate a lot of fruits. I was quite good in the sense that I didn’t feel really unwell. I just had a mild sore throat and lost my sense of taste and smell for four or five days.”

After two weeks in self-quarantine, Darren’s symptoms subsided, and he believed he made a recovery. The problem about what to do next persisted. Even with someone finally picking up his phone calls to the CPRC, he still could not get any conclusive response about what his next course of action should be.

In the days after his two-week self-quarantine, Darren tried to get in touch with his Pusat Kesihatan Daerah (PKD) or District Health Office. The one phone call that was answered requested more information from him to be sent over WhatsApp. Until now, there has been no follow-up.

Darren then took it upon himself to drive to the Titiwangsa PKD where, to his frustration, there were no signs or directions to indicate where to go.

The Health Ministry contacts for Covid-19 can be found at covid-19.moh.gov.my/hotline. - Mkini