Healthcare workers who have been relentlessly fighting the COVID-19 outbreak for the last five months, will soon be given rest days, in stages.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the frontliners will also be given counselling to prepare them for a possible resurgence in the number of cases.

"For the past five months, healthcare workers and MOH personnal had been working day and night, and as a result of their sacrifice, COVID-19 positive cases had been decreasing.

"There has also been a drop in patients in the ICU and quarantine centres in the past two weeks, and this is the best time to give the MOH staff a break or counselling for them to perservere, should there be a spike in cases. We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the best," Noor Hisham told his daily COVID-19 press conference yesterday.

Preparing healthcare workers was crucial as they are the last line of defence to avert a bigger catastrophe involving more COVID-19 cases and deaths in the country, he added.

Noor Hisham also thanked other frontliners, besides healthcare workers, for their efforts in combatting the outbreak thus far.

Yesterday, 30 new COVID-19 cases were reported - the lowest since March 12, even before the Movement Control Order (MCO) was enforced.

However, there was one death reported, involving a 47-year-old man, bringing the total death tally to 106.

To date, there are 6,383 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country, while 4,567 people have been discharged.

Globally, the COVID-19 tally has surpassed 3.7 million and more than 258,000 people have died from the disease.


Source: Bernama
Photo source: Astro Awani/Bernama