THE Health Ministry has performed Covid-19 69,675 tests on people, averaging some 10,000 tests daily, said Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“We are increasing our capacity from 4,692 (on March 23) to now about 10,000 per day. We are trying to increase our capacity to 11,500.

“Once we reach that, we need to expand further,” he told a press conference in Putrajaya today.

Data released by the ministry today showed that 10,986 tests were carried out yesterday after another 12,138 tests were carried out on Tuesday.

The ministry broke the 10,000 barrier on April 3, carrying out 11,403 tests that day.

Currently, the ministry uses the real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT-PCR) technique to determine if a patient is infected, and has plans to carry out 16,000 Covid-19 tests per day by mid-April.

It dropped the use of a rapid test kit that detects antibodies present in the body, which did not give accurate results as patients infected with Covid-19 may not show elevated antibodies for some time.

“None have shown reliability and accuracy,” said Noor Hisham today. 

He expressed hope for another rapid test kit, which detects antigens, or foreign substances, instead.

“We need to find a test kit that rapidly detects antigens, which has a short turnaround time and is portable, which means we can do point-of-care.

“If we have this rapid test kit that is reliable and accurate then perhaps that is the solution for us to expand our investigation in our clinics and hospitals.”

Malaysia today recorded 109 new cases, bringing the total tally to 4,228 cases. It has recorded two new deaths, taking the toll to 67. – April 9, 2020.