PETALING JAYA: A Top Glove employee who died on Saturday was admitted to hospital only in the later stages of Covid-19 when his condition had worsened, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.
Noor Hisham said the worker, a Nepali security guard for the glove-making company, was in category 4-5, which refers to those who need to be placed in intensive care or who need to be ventilated.
“He was admitted into the ICU. We gave him the best treatment we could but he died from lung complications as a result of Covid-19,” Noor Hisham said.
The guard, Yamnarayan Chaudhary Tharu, had worked at Top Glove’s F13 factory in Meru, Klang. His death was the first reported at the company.
The Teratai cluster in Selangor is said to have originated from Top Glove’s factories in Meru. A total of 81 new infections were detected within the cluster today, bringing the number of positive cases to 5,531.
Meanwhile, in response to Bukit Gasing assemblyman Rajiv Rishyakaran’s call to review the definition of Covid-19 “close contacts”, Noor Hisham said the health ministry’s definition was set by the World Health Organization.
He said the ministry defined close contacts as healthcare-associated exposure without appropriate use of personal protective equipment, treating patients in a closed environment, working together in close proximity with a positive case, travelling with a patient or living in the same household as someone who has tested positive.
However, he added that they would review this definition from time to time.
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