PUTRAJAYA, April 17 — The number of personal protective equipment (PPE) used by\u00a0healthcare workers under the Health Ministry (MOH) amounts\u00a0to 59 million units monthly, said\u00a0Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham\u00a0Abdullah.<\/p>\n
He said MOH is in talks with a few agencies especially those in the fashion industry to ensure a continuous supply of\u00a0PPE.<\/p>\n
“We are already talking to the industry, fashion designers, as well as working with other agencies on how we can have a continuous flow from the local industry to produce PPE for us.<\/p>\n
“There are 18 items of PPE, so we are monitoring closely to ensure stocks are\u00a0continuously being procured and delivered to MOH,” he said at a daily briefing on COVID-19 yesterday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said some ministry staff were believed to have\u00a0contracted COVID-19 because many people gathered in pantries at the same time.<\/p>\n
“What we have observed is that when they went to the pantry to rest, many were there in a crowded space; there might have been infection there.<\/p>\n
“When the ministry\u2019s healthcare workers worked in the COVID-19 ward or Intensive Care Unit (ICU), they were not infected because they were wearing PPE,” he added.<\/p>\n
As such, Dr Noor Hisham the ministry had suggested that pantries be regularly cleaned and sanitised to prevent the spread of infection.<\/p>\n
He said\u00a0267 workers of the ministry had contracted COVID-19, and 73 per cent of them were infected in the community and not when working in COVID wards.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“We have 50 people or 19 per cent who were infected in hospitals, that is those infected by patients because some patients did not disclose their travel history, or their links to high-risk groups or close contact with COVID-19 positive patients,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
In another news, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has\u00a0decided to use the\u00a0antigen rapid test kit\u00a0from South Korea, COVID-19 test samples will\u00a0no longer be sent to the 43 MOH laboratories conducting the screening.<\/p>\n
Dr Noor Hisham said all that was needed were biosafety cabinets and the test\u00a0could\u00a0be done at point of care,\u00a0in clinics or hospitals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe sensitivity (rate) we are looking at\u00a0(for the rapid test) is 84.4 percent\u00a0and the specificity rate\u00a0of 100 percent,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
He said the\u00a0MOH would proceed to test the\u00a0population using the antigen rapid test kit\u00a0and the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) screening in the labs would\u00a0complement it in case there were any doubts over the results.<\/p>\n
Dr Noor Hisham added that MOH expected to use the new test kit\u00a0by next week.<\/p>\n
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