THE number of Covid-19 cases have been fluctuating in recent weeks due to the number of tests being carried out daily, Health Ministry data have shown.

A total of 32,370 tests comprising RTK-Antigen and RT-PCR tests were conducted on April 11 while 95,676 tests were carried out on May 19.

Rough calculations based on the ministry’s data show that between May 20 and June 1, the test samples taken ranged between 89,227 and 114,000. This indicates there was an increase in the number of samples taken for testing.

The positive rate has been in the 4% mark.

Virologist Dr Chee Hui Yee from the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Universiti Putra Malaysia said the high number of cases is due to an increase in the number of tests conducted.

“Selangor is also doing free screening for its citizens. This has also increased the number,” she said.

She urged more states to follow Selangor’s footsteps by conducting mass screening using antigen test kits.

Chee, however, said it is important to take note that the cases are not reported in real time.

Daily case numbers have been fluctuating between 6,000 and 8,000, and even hit a peak of 9,020 on May 29.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Associate Prof Dr Malina Osman said the fluctuation in daily cases is caused by the number of symptomatic patients going in for testing, close contacts called in for screening, the capability of public health staff, logistics as well as mass screening activities.

“We have to intelligently interpret the data based on all those relevant public health indicators.

“Looking only at the number who were subjected to screening is difficult to conclude if the number of tests conducted were enough.

“We have to look at all perspectives collectively. Money and resources are always limited. It needs to be prioritised according to the current morbidity and mortality index. With more and more sporadic cases, priority now is to increase the vaccination rate,” she said.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association president Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar believes that more tests should be done.

He said the number of tests should ideally be between 20 and 30 times more than the positive cases detected.

Zainal said based on World Health Organisation guidance, if the positive rate is below 5%, it means the infection is under control and vice versa.

Meanwhile, sharing his own data on the daily tests on Twitter, Dr Amar Singh HSS said the positive rates had been in the 7% mark between May 29 and June 4.

“No meaningful drop in numbers yet. Daily numbers affected by testing numbers,” the consultant paediatrician said in a tweet.

Malaysia reported 6,241 cases yesterday against 5,133 recoveries and 87 deaths. – June 7, 2021.