Noor Hisham gets birthday surprise from media, MOH staff

The '’Happy Birthday'’ song filled the eight floor of the Ministry of Health on Tuesday as a surprise for Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who celebrated his 57th birthday today.

With everybody present observing the social distancing, the surprise birthday song echoed just as the Health director-general took the last question at his daily Covid-19 press conference when media personnel and the ministry's staff rolled out a birthday cake.

"Thank you to all Malaysians who have wished me happy birthday, we are still fighting to flatten the curve of COVID-19 infection. Let us stand together to ensure we can achieve the target by lowering the cases,” he said earlier during the press conference.

Flashing his sweet smile to the 30 media personnel in the hall, the ever-humble Dr Noor Hisham also took the opportunity to introduce his deputies and officers, whom he described as his 'commanders', who are always by his side during the media conference.

They include his deputies, namely Datuk Dr Rohaizat Yon (Medical), Datuk Dr Chong Chee Keong (Public Health) and Dr Hishamsham Mohd Ibrahim (Research and Technical Support), and Disease Control Division Head Dr Norhayati Rusli.

Later, Dr Noor Hisham took some time to look at the paintings by students of Sekolah Kebangsaan Batu Arang, Selangor, which displayed various messages and thank you notes to all the frontliners in the fight against COVID-19.

Dr Noor Hisham has made the country proud when he was recently recognised by the China Global TV Network (CGTN) as among three of the world's top doctors in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.

The two other doctors, who are listed on the China Global TV Network (CGTN), are United States’ infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci and New Zealand’s director-general of health Ashley Bloomfield.

In an exclusive interview with Bernama yesterday, he sent a message asking all Malaysians to stay at home in compliance with MCO as a birthday gift for him in an effort to break the chain of the Covid-19 infection that has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives worldwide.

Dr Noor Hisham, who is also a surgeon, holds a Master’s Degree in Surgery and a Doctorate of Medicine from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM). He was appointed as director-general of Health on March 1, 2013 replacing Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman.

-  Bernama