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PUTRAJAYA: South Korea’s first batch of 50,000 rapid antigen test kits is expected to arrive in Malaysia on Friday (May 1), says the Ministry of Health.
Chief Health Officer Datuk Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said that once the rapid test kits were ready, they would likely be shipped to Sabah and Sarawak to help drive Covid-19 testing there.
“The priority will be for Sabah and Sarawak.
“The two states are vast and logistics is more difficult there.
“For example, in Sarawak, there are only four hospitals and laboratories with the capacity to perform Covid-19 tests, namely the Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching, the Miri Hospital, the Bintulu Hospital and the Malaysia Sarawak University (Unimas) .
“We can place the rapid test kits in other hospitals and clinics.
“The advantage of these rapid test kits is that the test can be done at the point of care and the results will occur quickly, so there is no need to send samples to laboratories elsewhere,” said Dr. Hisham in the Covid-19 daily press from the ministry. conference here.
He said the ministry’s health workers would receive training on how to use the tests.
He added that, in addition to East Malaysia, some of the kits would be shipped to Kuala Lumpur International Airport.
“We will put two biosafety cabinets in KLIA, so that we can maintain these test kits. Test kits can be used to assess passengers in transit, for example, “he said.
The rapid antigen test kits, purchased from the Korean firm SD Biosensor, are said to have a sensitivity rate of 84.4% and a specificity rate of 100%.
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