ONLY SALIVA TEST FOR SCHOOLS
Nasal swab tests not allowed, says Education Ministry
COVID-19 screenings in schools under the Education Ministry must be done only with saliva test kits. According to Bernama, the ministry said nasal swab tests were not allowed and not in accordance with its instructions in a letter dated Nov 28.
Referring to a photo titled “Teachers conduct practical training by swabbing students in a school” that went viral, the ministry said investigations found it involved a Covid-19 screening in a school in Pahang.
Sixteen students at the school were selected at random to undergo the screening using saliva test kits, it said.
“However, a nasal swab demonstration was also conducted and involved four students and four teachers who were assisted by two community nurses.”
The ministry said the Covid-19 self-test for students was being carried out in accordance with the Guidelines for School Management and Operation 3.0.
The screening of pupils must be done on a rotational basis, involving at least 10 per cent of students and using only saliva kits provided by the ministry under the supervision of teachers.
Meanwhile, the number of new infections returned to more than 5,000 yesterday, after recording about 4,000-odd cases for four consecutive days.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the country recorded 5,020 new infections, raising the toll to 2,673,019.
This was an increase from 4,965 cases on Tuesday.
Sixty-six people died, raising the death toll to 30,718, with nine being brought-in-dead (BID) cases.
A total of 4,817 recoveries were recorded.
The national Covid-19 infectivity rate, Rt, remained at 0.99 on Tuesday.
The Rt had been on an uptrend since Dec 2.
Dr Noor Hisham said Perlis continued to have the highest Rt at 1.13. Other states with a Rt above 1.0 were Labuan (1.06), Penang and Melaka (1.03), and Negri Sembilan (1.01).
Based on data shared on the Health Ministry’s CovidNow portal, Malaysia recorded an average of 1,056 hospital admissions in the past seven days, a three per cent reduction compared with past weeks.
However, for the same period, hospital admissions increased in Kedah, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan, Perlis, Penang, Terengganu, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.
On vaccinations, 78 per cent (25,461,172 people) of the population were fully vaccinated, comprising 22,734,488 adults and 2,726,684 adolescents.
In terms of age groups, 97.1 per cent of adults had been fully vaccinated and 86.6 per cent of adolescents had completed both doses of the vaccine.