Dr Noor Hisham: Malaysia’s COVID-19 testing on par with South Korea

Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah indicated today that Malaysia’s testing for Covid-19 is on par with South Korea, dismissing claims that the screenings here were inadequate compared to other countries.

The Health director-general cited from a report published by the University of Oxford that compared Covid-19 tests to support his assertion.

“If we look into the data in the report, Malaysia has carried out 31.29 tests in a sample population of 1,000 people and the positive rate is 0.9 per cent.

“While South Korea conducted 31.1 tests in a same sample population with the positive rate also at 0.9 per cent,” he said in his daily Covid-19 briefing.

He said both Malaysia and South Korea have conducted the same number of tests in the targeted groups.

In comparison, Dr Noor Hisham said neighbouring Thailand only conducted 5.49 tests on the same sample size population with a similar positive rate at 0.9 per cent.

“According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) if the positive rate is more than 10 per cent or 15 per cent then there are chances many positive cases have not been screened and tested.

“Since our cumulative positive rate is only at 0.9 per cent then it shows that the amount of tests done is adequate,” he explained. —  Malay Mail

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