Thread by @drmusanordin

The @WHO has 4 pillars to #COVID19 pandemic management:
1 #TESTTESTTEST
2 #ContactTracing
3 #Isolation
4 #PhysicalDistancing @DrDzul @ProfAdeeba @chriskc_Lee @DrKhorSK @boosulyn @nazrikh @theedgemalaysia @malaysiakini @malaymail @staronline @FIMAweb

Testing is a bedrock strategy in outbreak management for various reasons:
1 It determines the burden of #COVID19 disease in the community
2 It directs healthcare providers towards targeted contact tracing and boost the apps with data for mapping the movements of the infected ...

contact tracing & enforcement of individual quarantines
3 It identifies clusters of infection and hotspots for more specific intervention eg intensive tracking and Enhanced MCO (ECMO)

4 It’s tracking over time will inform us whether our intervention is impacting on containing or mitigating the spread of the disease

Up to date MOH have done = 43,462 tests
This was over a 15 day period post MCO = 2,897 tests/day
The tests/day touted by MOH was 7,000 = 41%
M’sia 2020 pop = 32.37 million
Tests done = 0.13%
Compare this with South Korea who have tested 6X more (0.8% of their pop tested)

More useful comparator figure is tests/per million pop.
M’sia tests per million pop = 1,579
Compare this with countries who have been successful in containing #COVID19 :
Singapore: 6,000 per mil
South Korea: 6,500 per mil
Australia: 9,000 per mil google.com/amp/s/amp.theg…

So it would seem from this comparative data that Malaysia needs to ramp up testing by 4-6X if it wants to flatten #COVID19 epidemic curve

Hopefully testing at private hospitals and now initiated at the 10 universities will help to boost the numbers.

KPJ Damansara Specialist Hospital has been at the forefront of COVID19 testing. We first initiated it on 11/2/2020.
Our COVID2019 positive rate is 1.4%
Singapore is 1.0%
South Korea is 2.7%

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