As the world scrambles for resources to battle the Covid-19 pandemic, one man in Malaysia has caused a clinic to temporarily close after lying about his recent interaction with a potential Covid-19 patient.

On Mar. 19, a staff at the clinic, Mei Yong, wrote about the incident on Facebook.

Slipped through screening procedures

At around 9:30am on the day, Mei Yong noticed a commotion when one of the clinic's doctors rushing out of her office.

The reason for the commotion, she later discovered, was due to a young man who had visited the clinic.

According to Mei Yong, the man had slipped through all their screening procedures, because he did not answer the medical staff truthfully.

Only after several rounds of questioning from the doctor did the man admit that he was a close contact of a Covid-19 PUI (Patient Under Investigation).

A Covid-19 PUI is someone suspected to have the virus, taking into consideration symptoms and travel history.

Lab samples for such cases would have been collected, pending results.

Following the revelation, the clinic's staff cleared out all the patients and reviewed their risk of infection.

The facility was then shut down for a few hours so that disinfection could be carried out.

Could infect those with lowered immunity

Mei Yong then urged people to have a sense of responsibility.

Addressing the PUI in one of the paragraphs of her post, she also revealed that he had coughed on the doctor during his time in the clinic.

"Hey boy, you are young. You are healthy. You think you're fine. But did you know? There are also elderly and young children in the clinic seeking treatment, the nurse who screened your vital signs is a pregnant lady and the doctor who is trying to help you, you coughed right in her face.

If you're not a positive, we will all be grateful. But what if you are? Yes, you have a high chance of recovering from the infection because of your perfectly fine immune system. What about those who accidentally contracted the infection due to your irresponsible acts? If anything happens to them, will you be guilty for the rest of your life?"

You can read her post in full here:

Top photo via Mei Yong on Facebook