Number of COVID-19 screening cases on par with South Korea

The average of 31.29 COVID-19 screenings conducted by the Health Ministry for every 1,000 persons is on par with South Korea which has successfully curbed the spread of the disease.

Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the number of tests was sufficient as positive cases in the country was less than one per cent, at 0.9 per cent.

“Looking at our data, the number of screening tests in Malaysia and South Korea is sufficient with our positive rate, which is 0.9 per cent.

“If the number of positive cases is 10 per cent and 15 per cent, this means that the Health Ministry must conduct more cases to detect cases,” he said in a press conference on the COVID-19 situation here today.

Dr Noor Hisham said to date, the Health Ministry had conducted screening tests on 89,288 patients from all walks of life, at a positive rate of 0.05 per cent.

“This means that from the ministry’s data, it can be concluded that COVID-19 in Malaysia is under control and the tests conducted so far are sufficient,” he said, denying claims that the ministry was not conducting enough COVID-19 screening tests.

He added that Thailand conducted 5.49 tests per 1,000 people, which is a much lower figure than Malaysia because the country had been free of infections for 70 days.

“Singapore conducts 111.22 tests, with a positive rate of 8.10 per cent. The best country is New Zealand which conducts 100.98 tests per 1,000 population (0.30 positive rate) while America conducts 180.22 per 1,000 population with a high positive rate of 8.10 per cent,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said according to World Health Organisation (WHO) standards, if the number of positive cases exceed 10 or 15 per cent, this means there are more cases which have not been screened and more tests need to be done.

He said this data was issued by ‘Our World in Data’, Universiti Oxford in United Kingdom.