THE government has spent RM1.17 billion on efforts to combat the Covid-19 epidemic, said Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.

He said the money came from the Health Ministry’s allocation for purchase of medical equipment and supplies, consummables, personal protective equipment, reagents and test kits as well as other services.

“The allocation is used for all MOH facilities including hospitals, health clinics and dental clinics,” the Tenggara MP said in a written reply yesterday in the Dewan Rakyat.

Dr Adham was responding to Tengku Zulpuri Raja Puji’s (Raub-PH) question on MOH spending during the coronavirus outbreak.

He said that as of November 22, the government had screened 2,528,158 people for Covid-19, 2.17% or 54,775 of whom had tested positive.

He said the swab test was only performed when there was strong reason to do so.

He added the MOH’s targeted approach to test only patients under investigation and close contacts meant a higher rate of positive results.

“The positive rate detected in clusters is 2.47% compared to 0.23% (in non-cluster) cases.” – December 1, 2020.