KUALA LUMPUR, March 24 — Insurance firm Zurich Malaysia has donated RM160,000 for Hospital Selayang to purchase medical ventilators crucial for treating patients infected with the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).

Zurich said the funds came from the surplus pool of its general takaful business, Zurich General Takaful Malaysia Berhad.

"Our healthcare workers on the front lines have been and are still working very hard to contain and overcome this pandemic,” Zurich General Takaful chief executive officer Nazrul Hisham said in a statement.

"We hope more can step in to play a part while conscientious citizens ease their work by adhering to the movement control order to stay at home.”

Nazrul urged other companies and Malaysians to contribute the aid and resources they may be able to spare during the crisis, saying Malaysia’s public health system needed all the support it could get during this time.

Frontline medical workers are already facing a worrying shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) needed to minimise their risk of infection while treating patients with the extremely virulent Covid-19.

The ventilators that will be purchased using Zurich’s donation will also be critical to prevent further deaths from the disease.

Attention is beginning to shift to Malaysia’s availability of intensive care units and ventilators that are needed to keep critically ill Covid-19 patients alive, as the rate of new infections has not abated while recoveries have also been slow.

The country has already lost 14 people to Covid-19 and amassed 1,518 confirmed infections as of yesterday.