Seven Covid-19 patients detected in hospital's drive-through testing

Thomson Hospital's drive-through Covid-19 testing initiative has been able to identify seven positive cases on its first day of operation on March 23.

All seven cases have a history of travelling abroad including to the UK, Manila, and Bangkok.

According to Dr Mohamed Al-Hadi Mohamed Razhi, two of the patients who had returned from the UK were asymptomatic.

"What happened in the past couple of days, two of the patients who had a history from returning from the UK had shown no symptoms. But they came for testing because they had awareness.

"So the drive-through test is our initiative to trace cases in the community, as well as lessen the burden on public hospitals. It is important that we test, isolate and treat them," he told Malaysiakini.

Mohamed is the consultant emergency physician and head of Accident & Emergency at the hospital.

Explaining the Covid-19 tests, Mohamed said the hospital uses a test called Real-Time Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) rather than the Covid Rapid Test (CRT).

"For CRT, you can get an instant result in about 15 minutes but it can't be used for screening purposes. This is because CRT detects your antibody. When the virus enters your body, it takes three to five days for your body to produce the antibody.

"If you use CRT and the result is negative, it doesn't mean that you don't carry Covid-19 in your body," he said.

Mohamed added RT-PCR is much more reliable and used by hospitals worldwide.

"For RT-PCR method, we take nasopharyngeal and oropharyngeal swabs, put them in a virus transport medium, and conduct a test. This is the most accurate to see if you are really infected," he said, adding that it takes two to three days to obtain the results.

Mohamed said the drive-through Covid-19 test was a clean procedure where patients didn't have to be in a group of people and are able to observe social distancing measures.

"The method also lessens the exposure risk to healthcare workers. The patients just need to wind down the window and the workers take the swabs," he said.

The drive-through Covid-19 testing has been widely received as evidenced by the number of tests conducted with 200 to 300 tests on average per day, Mohamed said.

He explained that once the lab result shows that a patient is positive for Covid-19, the hospital will inform the patient and liaise with the district health department.

The department will then make arrangements for the patient to be brought to the nearest hospital gazetted by the government to treat Covid-19 cases.

Mohamed said the test costs RM580 and it is only by appointment.

For the record, as of today, the number of Covid-19 cases stands at 2,031 with 23 deaths recorded. - Mkini