This comes a day after the special committee on access to Covid-19 vaccines listed GPs, health ministry contractors, dentists in the private sector as well as members of Parliament, and assemblymen, among others, under category two.

The first category, meanwhile, comprised healthcare workers, in both public and private medical facilities, including staff at state health departments and those who were treating patients as well as those at the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre.

However, MMA president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said a number of GPs and their staff were infected with Covid-19 after treating patients who later tested positive for the virus.

“Some clinics had to shut down for 14 days as a result because the GP and staff had to be quarantined,” he said in a statement.

He also said that GPs were currently conducting mass and community Covid-19 screenings and this puts them at increased risk of infection.

“Placing GPs in category two of the guidelines under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme shows they are not being recognised as an integral part of the mainstream healthcare system and this will only delay efforts to bring the pandemic under control.”

Dentists and their staff, Subramaniam went on to say, were also at risk of contracting Covid-19 as patients seeing them would need to remove their face mask to be examined and treated.

“We hope the Special Committee on Covid-19 vaccine supply will review its categorisation of frontliners and list all healthcare workers directly exposed to risk under category one in its guidelines.”

Last night, a public health expert took issue with the government’s decision to “relegate” GPs and dentists to category two.

Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman said GPs and dentists “are usually the first port of call” for patients with severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and influenza-like illnesses (ILI), which could well be Covid-19.

Subramaniam agreed with this, saying SARI and ILI were the most common symptoms in patients infected with Covid-19.