Demand for Covid-19 testing surges as cases spike

KUALA LUMPUR: Since the third wave of Covid-19 hit Malaysia in October last year, more and more people are willing to get tested even though they are asymptomatic and not a close contact.

Is Malaysia's testing capacity currently enough to cater to the increasing demand, with the four-digit cases recorded over the months, and in case of a worst-case scenario?

Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Prof Datuk Dr Subramaniam Muniandy said the national laboratory capacity for both public and private laboratories is currently at 70,000 tests per day.

This means, if more than 70,000 tests are done in a day, the turnaround time is going to be delayed, he said.

"We should prioritise testing for high-risk groups and test certain communities for surveillance.

"Hence we should start focusing on rapid antigen tests which are fast and more costeffective for rapid and mass screening," he told Bernama when contacted.

Dr Subramaniam added that although the Health Ministry (MOH) had stated that it will not screen all close contacts but only those who are symptomatic, MMA feels that the ministry should revert to its earlier policy.

"Its earlier policy of tracing as many close contacts and test all of them to ensure we stop any potential spread of Covid-19 infections in the community.

"If the government's resources are stretched, it should engage the 7,000 MOH trained general practitioners (GP) to assist them," he said.

Meanwhile, Health directorgeneral Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in his press conference yesterday that the MOH was expected to increase the capacity of Covid-19 laboratories that can conduct the Reverse Transcription Polymerase Chain Reaction (Rt-PCR) tests, to between 100,000 and 150,000 tests per day.

“So far, we have 68 laboratories that carry out 70,000 Rt-PCR tests per day and the capacity of these laboratories will be enhanced. We will also increase Covid-19 screening by using the Antigen Rapid Test Kit (RTK-Ag),” he said.