DO not lie to front-liners, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah told the public today, after it was reported a doctor became infected with Covid-19 by a patient who was not truthful about his status.

“We should also be protected, we have family and friends,” he said in a Facebook post today, while sharing the post from the infected healthcare worker, Dr Nur Marini Zainal.

According to her post, the patient came to hospital for a CT scan.

She said the patient was allowed the scan after he insisted he was in good health.

However, the scan revealed that the patient’s lungs were in the same condition as those of a Covid-19 patient.

The patient then admitted he had been suffering from a fever and cough for a week.

“The patient was confirmed Covid-19 positive two days later,” she said.

In her post, Nur Marini said she only came into close contact with the patient for 15 minutes, at most.

However, she had to insert an intravenous tube as part of the CT scan procedure.

Nur Marini said she was particular about hygiene but she said full personal protective equipment was only available to doctors treating high risk patients due to limited stock.

She said she was initially classified as a low risk close contact and worked for two days before going into quarantine.

“My swab test came back positive. I cried when I found out because I had to part with my children and husband… (I was also)worried for my family and colleagues whom I might have infected… disappointed with my patient,” she said.

Noor Hisham recently said that 1,880 healthcare workers have tested positive for Covid-19, with 52,593 of them screened for the virus since December 15.

Yesterday, Malaysia hit a new record high of daily Covid-19 cases after reporting 2,335 infections in the previous 24 hours.

Noor Hisham said the fresh cases have brought the caseload to 103,900 while active cases stood at 20,035.

The highest daily figure recorded prior to today was on December 10, when the country saw 2,234 new cases in a single day.

He said Kuala Lumpur topped the tally with 728 cases followed by Selangor with 710, and Johor with 412. – December 27, 2020.