Covid-19: Up to 40,000 samples taken weekly in Sabah

Kuala Lumpur: The number of samples taken for the COVID-19 test in Sabah has increased from 25,000 to 40,000 a week in October and November compared to 3,500 samples a week in September, said Deputy Health Minister I Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali.

He said a total of 380,850 PCR tests and 137,429 RTK Antigen tests were conducted in Sabah as of Nov 9.

"For the COVID-19 PCR test, the ability to analyse these samples is based on the capacity limit of each laboratory. The capacity limit for laboratories in Sabah is 2,700 tests a day.

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"When the samples taken exceeded the maximum capacity, the remaining samples will be taken to the labs in the peninsula," he said at the Special Chamber session of the Dewan Rakyat sitting here today. 

He said this in response to a question from Datuk Seri Wilfred Madius Tangau (UPKO-Tuaran) on the issue of lab facilities and PCR testing equipment in Sabah.

Noor Azmi said the government was setting up two labs in Sabah, namely the molecular lab in Tawau and the modular lab in Lahad Datu, which were expected to be completed soon with a capacity of conducting PCR tests on 200 samples per day.

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Apart from that, he said the Tawau Health Clinic lab has also been renovated and is ready to conduct PCR tests on 150 samples per day.

"Labs at Queen Elizabeth, Sandakan and Tawau hospitals can also conduct Rapid Molecular COVID-19 tests using Gene Xpert equipment," he said.

Meanwhile, he said 30,730 employees of the Ministry of Health (MOH) are currently serving in Sabah. They include 27,678 permanent staff and 3,052 contract staff.