Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said once the rapid test kits were ready, they would likely be sent to Sabah and Sarawak to help boost Covid-19 testing there."The two states are vast and the logistics are more challenging there.
“For example, in Sarawak, there are only four hospitals and labs with the capability to conduct Covid-19 testings, namely the Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching, Miri Hospital, Bintulu Hospital and Universiti Malaysia Sarawak ."The advantage of these rapid test kits is that testing can be done at point of care and results will be produced quickly, so there is no need to send the samples to labs elsewhere, ” said Dr Hisham at the ministry’s daily Covid-19 press conference here.
“We will put two biosafety cabinets in KLIA, so we can keep these test kits. The test kits can be used to test transit passengers, for example, ” he said. The antigen rapid test kits, procured from Korean firm SD Biosensor, are said to have a sensitivity rate of 84.4% and specificity rate of 100%.