KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 — Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah advised those who have tested positive for Covid-19 but are asymptomatic to be isolated at home as they may not be taken to the hospitals immediately. 

This is in stark contrast to how quickly people who tested positive were taken to hospitals earlier this year. 

Dr Noor Hisham said that this is because the Ministry of Health (MOH) is currently dealing with a very high number of cases and logistics issues when it comes to ferrying patients to hospitals.

"This happened in Sabah too. We are talking about more than 1,000 cases a day. This is because of increased testing among foreign workers, and as expected more cases being diagnosed.

"Foreign workers have no place to be isolated in... we have thousands here. We are increasing the number of beds to 10,000,” he told Malay Mail when contacted.

He was responding to a complaint by a business owner who questioned how MOH updates its contact tracing activity via the MySejahtera app, after three of her employees tested positive for Covid-19 but were yet to be contacted, or taken to government hospitals.

She said one of her staff had visited the Sungai Buloh Hospital with her boyfriend and his father to get tested for the virus, after the elderly man came into contact with a Covid-19 positive person. He later tested positive for the coronavirus.

She said that despite assurance from the hospital that the test results would be out between 24 and 48 hours, that did not happen.

The business owner said that after learning about her staff’s status, she ordered 17 other employees who are close contacts of the affected worker to self-quarantine. 

Two of them have since tested positive, while the others are still waiting for their test results.

"Two of my staff are positive cases. Till today, MOH has not contacted them, no pink bands, nothing.”

Dr Noor Hisham also said people waiting to be taken to hospitals should also keep in contact with their district health offices.

New Covid-19 cases in the country yesterday fell to 1,196 compared to the Boxing Day record of 2,335 infections.

Malaysia currently has 20,233 active Covid-19 cases.