ANWAR Ibrahim today questioned the Health Ministry’s Covid-19 testing capacity and the actual number of positive cases in the country.

The Port Dickson MP said while the Health Ministry’s briefings on Covid-19 cases are very assuring for the people, questions however remained if the number of positive cases is accurate.

He also questioned the Health Ministry’s methods used to carry out the tests.

“I’m not an expert but there is a dispute on methods they are using for the tests.

“For example, when tests were conducted using the Antigen Rapid Test Kits at the KLIA, the results came back negative.

“But, when they (the passengers) reached Kuching and were tested using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), the results were positive,” he told the Dewan Rakyat.

The opposition leader said the Sarawak disaster management committee was using the PCR method and it was much more effective.

Compared to Canada and Australia, he said, Malaysia’s testing capacity was low.

“We want to know the numbers of positive cases compared to the tests that were done.

“Australia’s test rate is 1.98 for 1,000 people, which resulted in 183 positive cases, and Canada test rate is 1.03 for 1,000 people, which resulted in 243 positive cases.

“Malaysia’s rate is 0.18 for 1,000 people and the results are seven infected cases.”

He added that there must be transparency on the tests that were carried out.

Anwar, while praising the Health Ministry’s work, also added that the number of testing carried out was very important.

“To ensure the safety of the people, the testing capacity must increase.”

As of Tuesday, the health Ministry has taken samples from 855,119 individuals, of which there had been a total of 8,729 positive cases.

There were four new cases reported yesterday, making it 83 active cases in all.

A total of 8,524 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals. – July 15, 2020.