Report: Health experts say Malaysia still lags behind on COVID-19 testing

KUALA LUMPUR (April 2): Some health experts feel that Malaysia is still under-testing for COVID-19 when compared to countries such as South Korea, reported the Malay Mail today.

“If you would like to compare, don’t use the total number of tests, but tests per million population.

“According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), Malaysia did 39,663 tests. That’s around 1,255 tests per million people. 

“So, higher new positive cases alone don’t basically show the true picture. Also better to refer to death cases and/or ICU [intensive care unit] cases [basically check against severe cases] to see the true picture of the outbreak,” Malaysia Medical Gazette managing editor Dr Khoo Yoong Khean told the news portal.

But he also added the authorities should only start worrying if the projection for hospital beds, ICUs and ventilator capacity cannot match the rise in cases.

“So, in a way, by testing more, we know the true picture of the outbreak and can prepare adequately,” he added.

Senior consultant paediatrician Datuk Dr Amar-Singh HSS told Malay Mail that test numbers compared against the Malaysian population is “very small” compared with other countries “such as South Korea or even Singapore”. 

“We don’t look at positives as indicators of our epidemic because MOH is not testing enough.

“Once you are not testing enough, you cannot look at test numbers to indicate your epidemic. You look at deaths,” said Dr Amar.

He explained that with a conservative estimation of 1 per cent of all patients succumbing to COVID-19, “means for every one death, there are 100 positive cases”.

So, according Dr Amar, 37 deaths (at the time of writing) means that there are 3,700 positive cases.

“How many do we have now? We have 2,626 cases (at the time of writing).

“But you see, 3,700 cases based on the number of deaths is not today’s number; it is a number from four weeks ago, because if you get infected, it takes about 10 days or two weeks before you are presented with symptoms.

“Then you are placed on a ventilator or in the ICU before you die. Three to four weeks ago, our epidemic size was 3,700. What’s the epidemic today? It cannot be 2,626, but it’s not 3,700, then what is it today?” he explained.

The current death toll in the country is 43 while the total number of positive cases is 2,766.

“We need to ramp up our tests enormously,” he said.

Dr Khor Swee Kheng of the Malaysian Health Coalition, said that the number of cases in Malaysia will “definitely rise” with more testing.

“But rising numbers of cases can be both good and bad. Bad because we don’t want people to be sick. Good because mass testing will tell us who is sick so they can be treated or isolated so they don’t pose a risk to other people.

“Good also because we can track those who have been exposed to sick patients, so we can again reduce the risk to others.

“And finally, good because it means that scientists will better understand how the infection spreads, and that will help us manage the MCO better,” he told Malay Mail.

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