KUALA LUMPUR Feb 17 — Healthcare workers in close contact with Covid-19 patients no longer need to quarantine if they are asymptomatic, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

However, he clarified that self-isolation was required if they show symptoms of infection.

"If the contact is close but not asymptomatic, they only need to do a Covid-19 screening test on a certain day,” he told a press conference at his ministry today.

According to him, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah issued a circular about this on February 15.

"This development will also be communicated to health workers in the private sector,” he said.

The minister explained that the surge in cases would invariably lead to increased exposure among healthcare workers.

"When there is close contact, there is economic disruption and the affairs of the parties involved,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said about half of 7,700 public health workers tested had already tested positive so far this year.

He said while the Health Ministry recorded only 284 cases in the fifth epidemiological week of 2022, a total of 3,343 cases were recorded between Feb 6 and Feb 12.

Khairy also said the Ministry of Health (MoH) will investigate complaints about inaccurate results from Covid-19 self-test kits.

Khairy said the Medical Device Authority (MDA) under MOH has been directed to address the matter.

"Two days ago, I had instructed MDA under the MOH which authorised the test kits to be evaluated before being sold, to call the test kits suppliers to evaluate all the complaints we received,” he said.