Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the new Covid-19 rapid test kits from South Korea have arrived and the Health Ministry is in the process of evaluating them.
He also said the ministry has received another 100,000 test kits from China, which are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“The test kits from South Korea arrived late last night and our teams are evaluating them at Hospital Sungai Buloh. So far, we’ve not received any reports yet.
“Also, this afternoon we received another 100,000 kits from China, a different brand from the one we tested much earlier. So, we will also try to test this new kit which is FDA-approved,” Dr Noor Hisham said during his daily Covid-19 briefing in Putrajaya.
Yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry had decided not to buy a rapid test kit from China due to the reported low accuracy rate.
He said Malaysia wants to avoid the mistake made by Spain, which had bought over 3,000 rapid test kits from China but is now not using them “due to the lower accuracy rate”.
However, today, he said he received assurances from Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to Malaysia, Bai Tian, that the new test kits are more accurate.
“I was assured by the ambassador that this is more accurate than the one that we tested previously,” he said.
“So, we’ll wait for perhaps another day or two for us to test these new kits. I’m not sure about the cost as we are testing the first batch.
“If the accuracy is good, we’ve already ordered another 200,000 from South Korea. I think it could be around US$5-6 (RM22-25) per test.
Meanwhile, Wisma Putra today announced that it has received on behalf of Malaysia a donation of Covid-19 medical equipment from the Chinese government.
The consignment consists of 100,008 units of Novel Coronavirus Nucleic Acid Diagnostic Kit (PCR-Fluorescence Probing) test kits, 100,000 pieces of N95 face masks, 500,000 pieces of surgical masks, 50,000 units of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and 200 units of ventilators.
On March 19, China’s Embassy here announced its first batch of donation of medical aid, where it donated and delivered 5,000 face masks and 10,000 surgical face shields as an aid to Malaysia’s medical personnel at Hospital Sungai Buloh.
On March 24, China’s Embassy in Malaysia said it, together with China Communications Construction (ECRL) Sdn Bhd, donated 5,000 N95 grade face masks, 20,000 medical masks and 1,200 goggles to the Health Ministry for use in the fight against Covid-19.
On March 25, the embassy said it together with China Enterprises Chamber of Commerce in Malaysia (CECCM), China Communications Construction Company ECRL, Chinese humanitarian group Mammoth Foundation, as well as BGI Group donated 5,500 Covid-19 test kits to the Health Ministry.
Besides medical supply, Chinese ambassador Bai Tian said China would also offer the support of a Covid-19 medical expert team from China, which could come here and work hand in hand with their Malaysian colleagues.
When asked how many and when would the doctors from China arrive here, Bai Tian said it all depended on the request from Malaysia.
“We want to know the actual need on the ground from the hospitals in Malaysia because we have experts from different areas like infection diseases, respiratory and ICU care.
“We are ready to offer the best practises and knowledge,” he said.
On March 25, boxes and boxes of donated medical equipment from the Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation landed in Kuala Lumpur to assist Malaysia in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.
The shipment consisted of face masks, testing kits, protective suits and face shields.
