PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s testing capacity for the Covid-19 infection which currently stands at 11,500 samples a day is expected to increase with the addition of five new laboratories.
These five facilities will be located in Tawau, Sandakan, Miri, Bintulu and Kluang.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today that with the addition of these five new laboratories, there will be 48 testing facilities nationwide.
“But what's also important is that we optimise our existing laboratory facilities,” he added.
Currently, with the PCR test, there are many pending cases, mainly because the test takes time, at least 6 hours. If the number of cases increases, it may take up to 24-48 hours to get a report.
To optimise the use of existing laboratory facilities, right now, for diagnosis of Covid-19, the ministry will continue to use the PCR test.
However, for those close contacts of patients who are in quarantine for 14 days, on the first day, they will take a swab of the individual for the PCR test.
On the 13th day however, instead of taking another swab for another PCR, they will instead now administer the antibody serology test.
Dr Noor Hisham said this test is faster and can be used at the bedside and does not need to be sent to the lab.
“If the serology test result comes out positive, then only do we test again using PCR,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
If the individual shows a positive result on the antibody serology test, this means there is an antibody response in that person and if he has the antibody, it means there was an infection. Otherwise he wouldn’t have the antibody.
“In such cases we do the PCR again because even if he has the antibody, the virus can sometimes still be in his body,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
However if the individual’s PCR test on the first day of quarantine shows negative and on the 13th day, the antibody serology test also indicates no antibody response, then it’s an indication the virus is not in his body.
“This way we can save on the use of PCR in our laboratory,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
He also added that given prediction about a peak in cases in mid April, Malaysia should had recorded 6,300 cases by now but the reality is that the nation had recorded less than 5,000 coronavirus cases.
This is a reflection that the first and second stages of the Movement Control Order have managed to reduce the number of cases and the third and final phase will help improve the situation further." he said.