KUALA LUMPUR, May 2 — The Health Ministry has distributed 50,000 antigen rapid test kits (RTK) for Covid-19 screening in selected areas, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The test kits were sourced from South Korea to supplement Malaysia’s reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) screening, which is more accurate but requires samples to be sent to laboratories.

"We have distributed 10,000 to Sabah; 10,000 to Sarawak; 15,000 for the border at Johor Baru and another 15,000 in the main entrances at KLIA and KLIA2.

"For the second phase, we might be receiving another 100,000 next week and maybe we will distribute them to the health clinics,” he said in a press conference today.

Last Wednesday, Dr Noor Hisham said that two biosafety cabinets will be placed at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport for the antigen rapid test kits to be used there as well.

A biosafety cabinet is an enclosed but ventilated laboratory workspace for safely working with materials contaminated with pathogens. The space is used to store and process antigen rapid test kits.

On April 16, Noor Hisham announced that the Ministry of Health had approved the use of antigen rapid test kits from South Korea to help Malaysia boost its Covid-19 testing capacity.

The test kits, which meet the ministry’s accuracy requirement with a sensitivity rate of 84.4 per cent and a specificity rate of 100 per cent, are procured from South Korean firm SD Biosensor Inc.

Malaysia has so far been relying on RT-PCR tests to diagnose the presence of Covid-19, which takes a relatively long time as the samples need to be sent to laboratories.

In comparison, Dr Noor Hisham said previously that antigen rapid test kits would yield test results within 30 to 45 minutes and that 15 tests can be done simultaneously.

In a related matter, Dr Noor Hisham also said that R0 or reproductive value of Covid-19 in Malaysia has fallen to 0.7, and the ministry will monitor the figure as restrictions are lifted on the economy.

"As long as the rate of infection, or R0, remained below 1 point, the ministry was satisfied that the spread of Covid-19 could be controlled,” he said.

R-0 is a metric that represents how many people an average person with a virus infects.

Dr Noor Hisham previously said the R0 for Covid-19 here had been as high as 3.5.