HEALTHCARE workers who have Covid-19 have been asked to reduce their quarantine by a day and return to work as the ministry is short-handed, Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

The health minister said healthcare facilities are facing more than 6% absenteeism nationwide.

A total of 19,420 healthcare workers were absent on March 23. 

Of this, 18,354 (94.5%) are confirmed to have contracted Covid-19 while 1,066 (5.5%) are close contacts.

“This represents a 6.8% rate of absenteeism from the Health Ministry’s (MOH) workforce nationwide,” Khairy said at a press conference in Parliament.

“Since March 4, the rate of absenteeism has been more than 6%.”

He said the decision to ask healthcare workers to return to work after the sixth day of quarantine was done at the request of hospital directors.

The full quarantine period for fully vaccinated persons is seven days. Unvaccinated persons must quarantine for 10 days.

“The proposed measures were presented and approved by the National Covid-19 Executive Meeting on March 15,” said Khairy.

He said healthcare workers returning to work early will not compromise patients’ safety as they are dressed in personal protective equipment.

As of February 24, close contacts who are asymptomatic and have received their booster dose need not undergo mandatory quarantine but must self-test. – March 24, 2022.