We are still doing enough tests, says health DG

 

The lower testing numbers could be due to a lack of manpower over the festive season but it does not affect the effectiveness of the testing, says Noor Hisham.

PUTRAJAYA: Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah maintains that Malaysia is still meeting the Covid-19 testing benchmark, despite a recent drop in the number of daily tests.

Noor Hisham told a press conference, that a total of 41,895 tests were done yesterday, comprising 16,464 RT-PCR and 25,431 RTK-Ag (rapid test kit) tests, with only more than 2,000 detected positive.

“Our benchmark is that for every positive test, we need at least 10 negative tests. So, our tests yesterday means that for every positive individual, there were 20 others who tested negative.

“This shows that sufficient tests are being done to detect positive cases. Although there has been a decrease in PCR tests, more RTK-Ag tests are being done,” he said.

He added that the health ministry would use PCR tests for clinical diagnostics of patients and RTK-Ag kits for on-field testing.

He also said the drop in PCR tests might be due to a lack of manpower over the festive season and fewer people getting tested at private labs.

Noor Hisham also said the health ministry was still testing asymptomatic patients, clarifying that it was merely prioritising patients with symptoms.

He said this was done in states such as Sabah and Selangor which had seen a rapid surge in cases, adding that asymptomatic cases would be told to isolate. He denied that the current infectivity rate was a misrepresentation of the actual Covid-19 situation here.

“When the number of cases increases, there might be a delay in getting tests because of the sheer numbers, so we will prioritise positive and symptomatic cases. But other states are still doing contact tracing and testing cases that don’t have symptoms.”

With the number of cases dropping in recent weeks, Noor Hisham said the infectivity rate (R0, pronounced R-naught) in most states was now below 1. The health ministry is aiming for a national R0 of 0.5.

He said this was not the time to relax but to continue complying with SOPs in order to break the Covid-19 chain of infection.

The drop in active cases means the overall bed occupancy rates in Covid-19 hospitals and low-risk treatment centres have dropped to 38% and 37% respectively. Covid-19 intensive care units are also seeing fewer patients now, with a 55% occupancy rate.

“At one point in time, the ICU occupancy rate almost reached 90%. Now we’re able to accommodate better, which will allow us to enhance our facilities from time to time,” he said. - FMT