PUTRAJAYA - Malaysia said on Saturday (Oct 10) that 579 of its healthcare workers have been infected by Covid-19 since the pandemic began, with eastern Sabah state hit hard in the last two weeks, local media reported.

The Health Ministry's director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 85 healthcare workers in Sabah were infected in the first 10 days of this month, compared with 66 for the whole of September.

Tan Sri Noor Hisham at his daily press conference called for more healthcare volunteers to come forward to help the ministry's fight against the coronavirus.

"Specifically, in Sabah, for the same period, 198 Health Ministry workers were infected by Covid-19 and in October alone, there is a record of 85 people (infected), compared to 66 people in September," he said, as quoted by Malaysiakini online news.

Malaysia on Saturday reported 374 new infections to bring the cumulative total to 15,096, the Health Ministry said.

Three more deaths were reported, bringing the death toll to 155.

Infections surged in Sabah in the last two weeks due to two weeks of campaigning for the Sept 26 state polls and an outbreak of cases in a detention centre for illegal immigrants.

Political campaigners in Sabah including Cabinet ministers who returned to Peninsular Malaysia and Sarawak were blamed on social media for bringing back the virus with them, leading to the recent spike in cases from Kedah to Selangor and Terengganu.

Earlier on Saturday, Malaysiakini reported that one of the hospitals heavily affected by the virus was the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital (HQE2) in the Sabah capital of Kota Kinabalu.

Forty of the 66 nurses taking care of the HQE2's Intensive Care Unit are now being quarantined after being exposed to positive Covid-19 cases.