By Zareef Muzammil
KLANG, Dec 3 — Selcare Clinic will increase the use of antigen rapid test kits (RTK-Ag) for the upcoming targeted Covid-19 community screening programme.
Its chief operating officer Mahdzir Ibrahim said the use of the kit accelerates the screening process and results can be obtained immediately in less than 30 minutes.
“Yesterday’s screening operation was a little different because we had used the RTK-Ag kit for the first time compared to the real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) technique.
“With the (RTK-Ag) test kits, we do not need to use the sampling laboratory at the headquarters but instead a mobile (laboratory) is prepared in a secured location with restricted access,” he said during a visit to the Covid-19 community screening programme held at the Taman Meru 3 Community Hall yesterday.
Mahdzir said the operation yesterday was different from the previous screening exercises as the residents were required to open a SELangkah (Step In, Safely) account and register via https://screening.selangkah.my/login.
He said the use of the contact-tracing system will continue as it enables laboratory results to be easily obtained online by the account holders.
“We are on standby to be notified by the state government on the next series of screening operations where the processes will be done digitally,” he said.
Mahdzir said that those in Meru who had undergone the mass testing operation would be able to start checking their results starting from 8pm last night.
He said six mobile laboratories were set up at the screening location to conduct sample testing and the results could be known within 20 to 30 minutes.
A total of 430 residents from Taman Meru 3, Taman Seri Meru, Taman Bayu and Taman Desa Permai underwent Covid-19 screening from 9am to 2pm administered by 35 Selcare health workers with the assistance from the Klang District Health Office.
On Tuesday, Selangor Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari had said that the targeted community screening programme would be carried out following the spike in Covid-19 positive cases in Selangor, which were mostly identified via the Teratai Cluster.
