Only 10 percent of residents under targeted enhanced movement control order (Temco) are tested for Covid-19, said Health deputy minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.
Temco lockdown orders are declared for localities with a high risk for Covid-19 infection.
“Those Temco areas, for example, the government will do, I think, if I am not mistaken, 10 percent of the population.
"It’s not all; we don’t do all," Noor Azmi said in an interview with health rights website CodeBlue.
He said this while explaining the Health Ministry's targeted testing approach.
Under Temco, residents are not allowed to leave their localities and are supposed to remain confined to their homes.
Only heads of households are allowed to go out to buy food and household necessities.
The government has frequently dismissed the need to do mass testing for Covid-19, citing low infectivity rates.
At a briefing in Putrajaya today, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia currently conducts 76.4 tests per 1,000 people with a positivity rate of two percent.
He said other countries that do more testing because they have a higher positivity rate.
He did note, however, that the government is increasing the use of antigen rapid test kits on the field to screen workers, for example.
Noor Azmi agreed with CodeBlue that more positive cases would be detected if mass testing was conducted as the virus was circulating in the community. - Mkini
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