PETALING JAYA: The health ministry has increased its Covid-19 testing capacity to more than 50,000 daily, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said today.
He said the capacity of reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests will go up to 54,706 a day, with 61 laboratories available from the health, and science, technology and innovation ministries, the army, universities and private labs.
In a statement, Adham said labs in the country were only running at 42% of their capacity as of yesterday, although this will rise as the ministry conducts more testings and screenings.
He said labs in Sabah were running at a capacity of 2,500 a day, while any samples remaining would be flown out to the peninsula by the RMAF.
“Aside from that, the laboratory at Klinik Kesihatan Tawau Kubota is being equipped to conduct RT-PCR tests and is expected to be operating soon.
“The health ministry will continue to increase integrated efforts with various parties in order to curb the spread of Covid-19,” he said.
The ministry reported 660 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, with the number of active cases standing at 5,768.
