PETALING JAYA: The current third wave of Covid-19 has already infected over 1,300 healthcare workers with nurses the hardest hit, leading to a renewed call for such professionals to receive the vaccine first when it becomes available.
This comes as Malaysia hit an unwelcome milestone with 1,683 new cases reported yesterday, bringing the country’s total to 90,816 cases since the pandemic began.Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in his Covid-19 briefing yesterday, said a total of 1,359 healthcare workers had been infected since the third wave began in October, not long after the Sabah state elections.
This current phase of infections makes up 76.7% of the 1,771 cases involving healthcare workers to date.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 1,153 new Covid-19 cases yesterday with 998 recoveries.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were now 15,294 active cases.
The total confirmed cases rose to 91,969 while the total number of recoveries stood at 76,242.
Malaysia also recorded one more fatality, with the Covid-19 death toll now at 433.
The fatality is a 76-year-old woman from Penang with a history of high blood pressure and dyslipidemia (an abnormal amount of lipids).
Currently, 112 patients are in intensive care, with 56 requiring ventilator support.
Dr Noor Hisham in a statement yesterday said Selangor continued to record the highest increase of the day out of all states with 401 confirmed cases, or 34.8%.
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Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah
(pic), in his daily Covid-19 updates on Friday (Dec 18), said that 76.7% (1,359) of the total 1,771 cases involving healthcare workers were from the current third wave alone.
From the gathered statistics, nurses made up the most of these infections with 690 cases so far.
A total of 587 cases were infections from the community, while 565 were from other healthcare workers. Around 152 cases or 8.6% were infections from unconfirmed Covid-19 patients. On Dec 18, 280 workers are currently receiving treatment at hospitals and are in stable conditions with a recovery rate of 84.2%. Meanwhile 1,697 are currently under quarantine, he said.
Hospitals in the Klang Valley recorded the most cases, with Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah (HTAR) topping the list at 54 cases.