PUTRAJAYA – The Health Ministry has identified seven hospitals to conduct field assessments on the deep throat saliva sampling method for Covid-19 screening.
Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said currently, the ministry is using the nasopharyngeal (nose) and oropharyngeal (throat) swab methods to detect coronavirus cases.
“We are at the evaluation stage, and we hope to get the complete report before recommending the deep throat saliva method for the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and antigen rapid test kit tests.
“Hopefully, this method will provide accuracy and precision in detecting Covid-19 cases.”
Dr Noor Hisham said the seven hospitals are Kuala Lumpur Hospital, Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital in Kedah, Sultanah Nur Zahirah Hospital in Terengganu, Sg Buloh Hospital in Selangor, Melaka Hospital, Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Negri Sembilan, and Sultanah Aminah Hospital in Johor. – Bernama, March 4, 2021
