KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 16 — Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today admitted there have been delays in informing some people about their Covid-19 tests, as well as picking up others for treatment after they test positive for the coronavirus.

The Health director-general attributed the lag to the lack of synchronisation in patient information between private and public hospitals.

"These tests are done by privately-run labs and some have not integrated their information through to the public health information system.

"First, we need to integrate the data and information of positive cases, and the positive cases detected in these private labs must be notified to the District Health Office for the necessary action to be taken as soon as possible,” he said in his Covid-19 briefing this evening.

Dr Noor Hisham was responding to news reports of patients in Selangor who had to wait for as long as five days after their Covid-19 tests came back positive before being picked up for treatment by public health officials.

Still, he advised those who are waiting for their lab results to be patient and remain at home until they are notified. He offered the same advice to those found Covid-19 positive and waiting to be transported to treatment facilities.

"But one has to make sure the District Health Office is notified of the positive cases and we will then do the necessary.

"As far as implementations are concerned there is no issue with our health officials, so maybe there was a delay in picking up patients because they were told of their results late and we were then notified late,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also explained that positive cases are sometimes classified under "other screenings”, though he said such incidents were not high.

"We have to investigate further to establish if there is a connection with other identified clusters.

"So those under ‘other screenings’ are cases outside of clusters we have already identified,” he explained.