CORONAVIRUS | Malaysia is looking into acquiring a new device from China which will automate the process of testing for Covid-19 and hopefully increase the speed of screening, said Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
The ministry is also getting a second type of test kit from South Korea and will test its viability before deciding to order more or not.
The first batch of test kits they received from South Korea had been found to be less than effective when tested.
“We are also looking into other test kits, we are talking about antigen rapid test kits. Tomorrow we will get a new test kit from South Korea, we hope the accuracy will be more than 80 percent.
“We are also looking for a new technique to do PCR testing with a device imported from China, which is more importantly automated so the process can be done faster and perhaps with that machine, we can do an additional 5,000 tests per day,” Noor Hisham said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.
He said currently, the ministry has tested 51,937 cases with 3,662 positive which is about 7.05 percent of the total cases.
Their 43 laboratories can test 11,500 cases per day right now, though they intend to increase two more laboratories in Sandakan and Tawau.
Noor Hisham said they are also trying to optimise their laboratories by pooling five cases in one go.
He once again stressed that they aim to be able to run 16,500 tests a day as soon as possible. - Mkini
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