Health DG: I did visit Sabah to check on the situation

PETALING JAYA: Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic) has denied an MP’s claim that he had not been to Sabah to check on efforts by frontliners to combat the Covid-19 pandemic.

He clarified that he travelled to Sabah at the end of August to check on Covid-19 management and preparations prior to the state election.He added that Health deputy director-general for public health Datuk Dr Chong Chee Keong and the Prime Minister’s special adviser on public health Tan Sri Dr Jemilah Mahmood went to Sabah just last week and two weeks ago, respectively, to check on the Covid-19 situation there.

“The issue that we are afraid to die does not arise. As a Muslim, I accept that death can happen anywhere, not just whether I go to the ground or not.

“What is important is for us to do our duty. We can have our differences but what’s important is to break the chain of infection so that we can save the country from an increase in cases and death rates, ” he said during a press briefing yesterday.

He was responding to GPS Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, whose comments about him had caused a stir in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Tiong claimed that Dr Noor Hisham did not go out to the field and visit hospitals during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic because he was “fearful for his life”.

Tiong asked why the Health DG did not go to Sabah when Covid-19 cases were at an all-time high in the state.