PETALING JAYA, May 19 (Sin Chew Daily) – According to a dentist volunteering to help the Petaling district health office in Selangor to contact confirmed COVID-19 patients, many COVID-positive patients on home quarantine while awaiting arrangements from the health office lack the awareness to protect their family members or people living under the same roof, indirectly spreading the virus to more people around them.

The dentist, who prefers to remain anonymous, said she had once contacted a COVID-19 patient who was living in a rented house with four other housemates who shared the same toilet and did not know he had tested positive for the virus.

"He had been confirmed with COVID-19 for five days by the time I called him. None of his housemates knew that he was positive.

"Imagine the housemates could get infected using the same toilet without they knowing it, and then spread the virus to more people at their work places."

She cited another example, an Indian patient who passed the line to her daughter when she called her.

"Back then the daughter was not infected, although I wouldn't know whether they were wearing masks at that time.

"I was shocked that the patient was still in close contact with her daughter."

With over a thousand new cases reported every day in Selangor, the health department might not be able to make instant arrangements for all COVID-positive patients to go for quarantine. They are told to stay at home until the district health office contact them. This can take up to a week.

"From the cases that I have contacted, I discover that many people did not actually know how they got infected, as their families and colleagues all tested negative for the virus."

To volunteer to assist the National Crisis Preparedness Response Center (CPRC), please call 03-9769 3476/3477, HP: 014-968 8839, or visit their website.