MOH can start mass screening for Covid-19 soon, says Health DG

CORONAVIRUS | The Health Ministry is going to embark on mass testing soon to detect Covid-19 cases among the population, the Health Ministry announced today.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the government has ordered rapid test kits (RTK) from a South Korean company and expects to receive them next week.

The kits are produced by SD Biosensor Inc, and detects antigens found on the virus that causes Covid-19. Noor Hisham said tests have found them to have high sensitivity and specificity.

"The good news is, the sensitivity we are looking into is at 84.4 percent. And the specificity of that test is 100 percent," he told a press conference in Putrajaya this evening.

The sensitivity can be improved if the test results are read using a special device, he added.

These figures mean the test would not produce a false positive result, but can sometimes produce a false negative (ie a negative result although the person tested has Covid-19).

Reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests, which are regarded as the 'gold standard' for early diagnosis of Covid-19, has similar issues.

Previously, the MOH has tested several brands of antigen RTKs that are produced by several companies, including from South Korea and China.

However, the ministry had decided not to procure the test kits after they were found to have low sensitivity for detecting Covid-19.

The use of RTKs would also save a significant amount of time and cost for healthcare services, compared to the RT-PCR tests that have to be done in a laboratory.

This would, in turn, enable the ministry to conduct mass testing.

"So now we are going to proceed to test our population using antigen RTK, and PCR will complement in case there is doubt in terms of any issue.

"I think this is what we are trying to embark on and perhaps we have already placed procurement for the RTK, hopefully, next week or so we can get the antigen test kit," he said.

Noor Hisham said that MOH had been doing mass testing, but they are focused on targeted groups and locations.

With the RTK, it would enable MOH to further widen its mass-screening activities.

"We have tested more than 90,000 people so far. And 5,182 were found positive, which is only about 5.4 percent," he said.

Meanwhile, asked about personal protective equipment (PPE) for frontliners, the top MOH officer said they have engaged local industry players to produce more of the items during the pandemic.

"We are already talking to the industry, (including the) fashion design industry, looking into production.

"MOH is also working with other agencies, how we can have a continuous flow from the local industry to produce PPE for us.

"There are 18 items of PPEs. Our usage of PPE is 59 million pieces a month. So we are monitoring closely and ensure stock are continuously being procured and delivered to the ministry," he said.

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