THE Health Ministry must be clear on what people who test positive for Covid-19 through private testing should do upon receiving their results, said Rajiv Rishyakaran.

People are still confused if they are considered “certified-positive patients” if their results are obtained through the RTK-antigen test, or if only the PCR test is acceptable, said the Bukit Gasing assemblyman.

And upon testing positive, they are unsure if it is sufficient to declare their infection status on the MySejahtera app, or must also report themselves to the ministry’s Covid-19 assessment centres (CAC).

“The ministry’s messaging on CAC has failed to address (these two issues).

“If the RTK-antigen test is not accepted as a form of identifying positive cases, the ministry must say so openly, and also give assurance as to as to how soon can those who are tested positive by RTK-antigen be retested with PCR at any government facility. 

“The ministry must come up with clear directives on what to do after getting tested, either via RTK-antigen or PCR. Apart from declaring oneself as positive on MySejahtera, is it compulsory for the person to report themselves to CAC?”

The ministry said CAC is meant to identify, evaluate, monitor and manage patients certified positive for Covid-19 and to manage those who are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms who must self-quarantine at home. 

Positive cases are supposed to wait for a call from their health district office (PKD) but, Rajiv said, many have received no calls as the public healthcare workers feel the strain of dealing with more than 50,000 active cases.

“Reports have shown that many Covid-19-positive patients are not identified let alone contacted even after being tested positive. Some were only contacted after their quarantine period,” he said.

On the confusion whether RTK-antigen tests are accepted by the ministry, Rajiv said one of his constituents in Bukit Gasing tested positive in a RTK-antigen test, and again in a PCR test eight days later. The man self-quarantined himself after the first test to avoid infecting the rest of his family.

When he went to the CAC for a release letter after 10 days in self-quarantine from the date of the RTK-antigen positive result, he was told that the CAC did not accept RTK-antigen results, and required him to quarantine additional days from the date of the PCR result.

“The man’s action to self-quarantine is in line with the many announcements by the government to self-quarantine and declare Covid-19 positive status on the MySejahtera app.”

Rajiv said such incidents while the number of Covid-19 cases remain high show a lack of proactiveness. – February 16, 2021.