Page 6 - NIH Bulletin Vol 19, January-June 2022, Entering the Endemic Phase: Nurturing Ideas in Healthcare
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Bulletin National Institutes of Health, Malaysia Vol 19 • January - June 2022
MEASURES TAKEN IN FACING THE PANDEMIC BY
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY &
HEALTH UNIT (OSH)
The Occupational Safety & Health Unit (OSH), National Sampling of nasopharyngeal swab & oropharyngeal swab
Institute of Health (NIH), is responsible for ensuring the Covid-19 (NPS & OPS) for RT-PCR COVID-19 (Figure 1) test
safety and health of all employees at NIH. Before the was done by drive-thru method (Figure 2) for employees
world and Malaysia was hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, and family members involved.
OSH NIH activities focused on occupational safety and
health promotion program activities in the workplace As of 31 December 2021, a total of 106 NIH employees
st
such as chemical and fire safety, Hepatitis B and Influenza have been confirmed positive, 854 people have been
Immunization program, Tuberculosis screening and so on. instructed to undergo home surveillance & monitoring
/ Home Surveillance Order (HSO); all of them were
Throughout the year 2021, the activities carried out by OSH closely monitored by the OSH unit, while a total of 2110
NIH are categorized as COVID-19 related activities and non- NPS & OPS samples were conducted for close contact
Covid-19 related activities. Among the COVID-19-related screening and symptomatic cases. The data were analyzed
activities are investigating COVID-19 positive cases as well as and presented (Figure 3) and (Infographic 1) at the
the detection of close contact with COVID-19 positive cases NIH Occupational Safety & Health Committee (DOSH)
in the workplace to help reduce the workload of the District meeting every 3 months.
Health Office (DHO).
Figure 1: Sampling procedure for nasopharyngeal swab and
oropharyngeal swab COVID-19 for RT-PCR COVID-19 test.
Figure 2: Sampling procedure for nasopharyngeal and Figure 3: Number of positive COVID-19 cases among
oropharyngeal swab via drive-thru. NIH staffs in 2019.
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