PUTRAJAYA: Any non-governmental organisation (NGOs) interested in offering assistance in areas affected by the Covid-19 pandemic must have basic training with the Health Ministry.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah advised the NGOs to seek basic training from the ministry especially in infection control and coordination.
"Their intention is good but we also need to protect the NGOs. If you look at the frontliners, they also managed to get infected, what more others coming to the ground.
"There are also NGOs who had formed a cluster in Selangor, for example, after visiting and returning from Sabah and our staff were also infected.
"There are a lot of things we can do and complement each other instead of duplicating our services on the ground," he told reporters during his daily Covid-19 press conference.
Dr Noor Hisham said there were NGOs that are not registered with the ministry, raising concerns about their health condition as they were exposed to the deadly virus at the affected areas.
He was commenting on allegations by an NGO called Iskul Sama DiLaut Omadal, claiming to be tasked in supervising positive Covid-19 cases in Pulau Omadal in Semporna, Sabah.
The NGO said there were currently nine positive cases at the Island and the volunteers have provided the patients with Vitamin C and food.