COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic will be discharged after two weeks of quarantine without being required to undergo a second test, said Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today.

This was because they are no longer infectious, even if some of them still carry coronavirus remnants in their system, he added.

This change in protocol came about after evidence from studies in Malaysia – as well as from South Korea, China, Singapore, and Germany – tests to detect Covid-19 still showed positive results over the long term even after patients have recovered.

This was because reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rt-PCR) tests had picked up dead viruses or fragments of the virus’ genetic material.

“The rt-PCR test is very sensitive in detecting the presence of virus (genetic material),” Dr Noor Hisham told a press conference in Putrajaya.

“Even if they tested positive, if they do not have symptoms (after two weeks), they will not spread the virus,” he said, adding that the health ministry has conducted numerous Covid-19 studies.

Noor Hisham said studies in China showed that the infection occurs on average between 2.3 days to 0.7 days before the onset of symptoms, while infectiousness drops significantly after a week. 

Another study in Taiwan found that after five days of being infected with Covid-19, patients did not spread the virus to close contacts.

A South Korean study found that up to 48.9% of recovered Covid-19 patients tested positive after discharge but there was no coronavirus infection among them.

“Our monitoring is consistent with such results, where we found that the infectious period begins two to three days before the symptoms begin and is at the peak one day before the symptoms. 

“The period of infectivity is also found to have declined to very low levels seven days after infection,” said Dr Noor Hisham. – June 12, 2020.