Dr Chin: S’wak can test 1,576 Covid-19 samples a day

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KUCHING: Sarawak is able to test the maximum 1,576 samples a day at five medical facilities, says state Health Department director Dr Chin Zin Hing.

He said apart from Sarawak General Hospital (SGH), Sarawak Heart Centre, Sibu Hospital, Miri Hospital and Bintulu Hospital also have laboratories capable of doing Covid-19 testing.

“Our laboratories have a maximum testing capacity of 1,576 tests a day and to reach this maximum capacity, we need to run two to three shifts or even work 24-hours.

Dr Chin Zin Hing

“However, we are not maximising our capacity yet,” he told a press conference giving the daily Covid-19 update in Sarawak yesterday.

Dr Chin added that Universiti Malaysia Sarawak’s (Unimas) Institute of Health and Community Medicine laboratory was still assisting the state government in running Covid-19 tests.

“Unimas was engaged by the State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to help in the testing of Covid-19, and has helped significantly during the outbreak.

“The Unimas lab is not closed. It just depends on whether or not we send the tests to them. At present we are not maximising the testing capacity; the number of tests sent to the Unimas lab varies,” he added.