KUALA LUMPUR, April 9 — The Health Ministry has yet to find a foolproof method to rapidly test for the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as existing ones have not been sufficiently reliable, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed today.
Dr Noor Hisham said the nation’s laboratory testing capacity for Covid-19 testing was now 11,500 per day compared to 4,600 in March.
However, he said other forms of testing were needed in order for the Covid-19 screening to be done on the field.
“So we need to find a test, maybe the best test would be a rapid antigen test kit that has short turnaround time as well as portable, that means you can do it at point of care.
“If we have this rapid test kit that is reliable and accurate, then perhaps that is a solution for us to expand our investigations in our clinic and even hospital,” he said in his daily Covid-19 press briefing.
He also revealed that none of the rapid test kits received by the ministry so far have shown adequate reliability or accuracy after conducting several evaluations.
Existing rapid test kits were reportedly prone to returning false positives and negatives.
“So we will continue, I was informed today that we are receiving a new batch, so we are testing them again until we find a reliable and accurate rapid test kit that we can use in our field,” he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said there were 43 laboratories located within the public, universities and private sector that have been roped in to be directly involved in running Covid-19 tests and detections throughout the country.
Earlier today, he also disclosed that there were 109 new Covid-19 infections as of noon, bringing the national total to 4,228 cases.
He also said two more Covid-19 patients have died, raising the national death toll to 67.
