METHODOLOGY: A total of 571 healthcare workers at COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 wards as well as the emergency department and laboratory staff at COVID-19 testing labs were recruited. The presence of novel human coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) and IgM/IgG antibodies were confirmed in all healthcare workers. The healthcare workers responded to an online Google Forms questionnaire that evaluates demographic information and comorbidities, exposure and adherence to infection prevention and control measures against COVID-19. Descriptive analysis was performed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 24.0.

RESULTS: Three healthcare workers (0.5%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, while the remaining 568 (99.5%) were negative. All were negative for IgM and IgG antibodies during recruitment (day 1) and follow-up (day 15). More than 90% of the healthcare workers followed infection prevention and control practices recommendations regardless of whether they have been exposed to occupational risk for COVID-19.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: This retrospective cross-sectional study involved record review of all blood culture results over 9 months period from 1st January 2018 until 30th September 2018 in 27 government hospitals in Malaysia. For each positive culture result, the type of isolated organism was classified to represent true bacteraemia or contamination.

RESULTS: We analysed 448,109 blood culture records from the participating hospitals. The blood culture positivity rate was 12.5% (57395 of 448109) and 25.0% (14367 of 57395) of the positive blood culture represents contamination. The national blood culture contamination rate in Malaysia was 3.2%. The contamination rate in the adult population was significantly higher than the paediatric population (3.6% vs. 2.6%; p<0.001). The blood contamination rate by institution ranged from 1.5% to 6.8%. The most frequently isolated microorganisms in the contaminated cultures were coagulase-negative staphylococci (71.0%).