Currently, many countries including Malaysia is hit by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As of 26th March 2020, Malaysia has 2,031 positive COVID-19 cases with a death toll of 24. During this critical time, the emergency department and several observation wards in Teluk Intan Hospital has been closed recently due to a large number of medical workers being tested positive for COVID-19. With Teluk Intan Hospital being the public hospital with the highest number of positive infection amongst staff (39 medical staffs), there are others such as Putrajaya Hospital, Raja Perempuan Zainab Hospital, Tengku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital and Selayang Hospital, which have recorded a few positive cases as well. The concerning addition of positive cases among medical staffs may lead to a shortage of healthcare personnel that can work be on duty during the pandemic.
One of the main reasons how medical staffs could get infected might be due to the close contact with infected patients while examining and administering breathing support machine to the patients. This close contact risks medical staffs of being infected with the Coronavirus. An increasing number of positive infections among the staffs will eventually lead to the closure of healthcare department and the hospital for sanitization works. Such occurrence would hinder treatment for patients and also increase additional workload to other hospitals to cover for the closure of another hospital.
