Number of daily Covid-19 tests carried out falls within WHO benchmark, says Health DG

PUTRAJAYA: The number of Covid-19 tests conducted in Malaysia daily is still adequate according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The Health director-general said the WHO’s benchmark is that for every confirmed case, a country should conduct around 10 to 30 tests.

“Yesterday (Feb 15), about 41,000 tests were conducted in the country. There were 2,176 Covid-19 cases recorded yesterday.

“So this means, for every positive case, we tested about 20 people, which is within the WHO benchmark, ” said Dr Noor Hisham at the ministry’s Covid-19 press conference here Tuesday (Feb 16).

He was responding to claims that the ministry has not conducted enough Covid-19 tests, which caused the number of cases to drop.

Dr Noor Hisham said based on the ministry’s data, there were 41,895 tests conducted in the country on Monday (Feb 15).

Of that total, 16,464 are from RT-PCR tests while 25,431 were from the antigen rapid test kits (RTK Antigen).

He said for the RT-PCR tests, the daily number especially those from private laboratories has shown a reduction in the past few days.

“The reduction recently is probably due to the festive period, so there may be less human resources at private labs to process test samples.

“Also, there have been many times where we find that private labs have delayed inputting negative test results into the Simka (Public Health Laboratory Information System) system.

“They prioritise reporting positive results over negative results. This makes it appear as if we have been doing less RT-PCR tests, although we actually have conducted a lot more than what is suggested, ” said Dr Noor Hisham.

He also denied that the ministry’s decision not to test close contacts who are asymptomatic have resulted in the number of positive cases to be skewed.

“This is not true. Yes, in situations where the number of positive cases are high such as in the Klang Valley and in Sabah, we prioritise taking swab tests for individuals with symptoms first.

“But in other states with less cases, we still take swab tests from all individuals identified as close contacts, even if they are asymptomatic, ” he said.

On another matter, Dr Noor Hisham assured cancer patients in the country that they will be prioritised under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.

“We have drawn in our policy that the first priority group will be given to our frontliners particularly the health care workers to protect them as they are constantly exposed to positive cases and to keep our healthcare system at the optimum level.

“The next priority group will be the elderly, 60 years and above and those with comorbidities who remain the most vulnerable. And the third group will be other adult populations aged 18 and above.

“Cancer patients shall be included among the vulnerable group and will receive their vaccination during the second phase of the National Immunisation Programme, ” said Dr Noor Hisham.

He was responding to concerns raised by cancer patients in Malaysia that they may have been missed out in the programme’s phase two schedule.