THE Health Ministry today said there are no perfect results for Covid-19 tests that are done using the Antigen Rapid Test Kits (RTK).

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there are no tests that will show 100% accuracy.

“The best we have is 90% sensitivity and 100% specificity.

“The advantage of using the RTK is that it can be done in 45 minutes while the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test kit takes six hours.

“For the PCR we also need 96 samples before we can run the tests.

“The cost is also cheaper to use the RTK, that’s why we are using it,” he said at the ministry’s press conference in Putrajaya.

Yesterday, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim questioned the Health Ministry’s Covid-19 testing methods and the actual number of positive cases in the country.

He said there were several cases where RTKs had given negative results for people who took the test at KLIA, but who then later tested positive using the PCR method.

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

Noor Hisham said that there was no proof to conclude that this was a false negative (test), because at that point of time the patient had been asymptomatic.

“The patient might have been in the incubation period and the virus load is not high.

“That’s why the RTK Antigen is not detecting it. Even if we were to do a PCR test the result will be negative.”

“That is why it is mandatory to have the 14-day home quarantine to ensure that they stay put.

“If they have symptoms then they can contact us and we will advise them to come to the clinic and we will test them using the PCR. 

“That’s why we also have home surveillance. If they do not comply with the standard operating procedure and practice social distancing with family members. Then they can infect others,” said Noor Hisham.

He said the RTK Antigen has a 90% accuracy rate, which is very good compared to earlier test kits, which only had accuracy rates of between 30% and 50%.

“For us at the Health Ministry, the 50% accuracy was not good enough. That’s why this RTK, which is 90% is good enough,” Noor Hisham Added. – July 16, 2020.