By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, Aug 12 — The Selangor government will be distributing 60,000 saliva-based Covid-19 self-test devices for free to family members of those who have been tested positive for the coronavirus, says Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari.
The Menteri Besar said the self-test kits will be channelled to the affected families via the community service centres and state legislative assembly coordinating offices in the 56 state constituencies across Selangor.
“Through Selgate (Healthcare) and Selcare, we will supply 60,000 saliva-based test kits to families of those who have tested positive for Covid-19 or who are of high-risk.
“We will begin the initiative in September to continue our efforts using the FTTIS (Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support ) approach, in line with the recommendations made by the World Health Organisation (WHO), while we continue with ramping up the vaccination process via the programme under CITF (Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force) and even Selvax (Selangor Vaccination Programme).
“Before September we will announce the (detailed) process of how to deliver the test kits,” said Amirudin during a virtual press conference on the current vaccination status and efforts in Selangor, aired live on Media Selangor’s Facebook.
Amirudin said the families that will receive the self-test kits will be identified from positive Covid-19 results recorded by the district health offices or Selcare clinics, which are then channelled to a single database under the Selangor State Health Department (JKNS).
“From there, we will give the free test kits in hopes that they would be able to do frequent testing to identify their health status as to whether they are infected or not.
“If they are infected, they would need to be quarantined and control or limit their movement,” he said.
Amirudin said the effort would be able to help protect family members who have yet to be inoculated.
He added many individuals who have received their vaccine doses falls under Category 1 or 2 if infected by Covid-19 and only a small minority would be classified as Category 3 and above and requiring oxygen support.
On July 23, the Health Ministry (MOH) via the Medical Device Authority (MDA) had approved the use of three saliva-based Covid-19 self-test kits that have been available in the market.
The three self-test kits available Beright Covid-19 antigen rapid test device (Oral Fluid) by Medinics (M) Sdn Bhd; ALLTest Covid-19 antigen rapid test (Oral Fluid) by Global Science Sdn Bhd and JusChek Covid-19 Antigen Rapid Test (Oral Fluid) by Neopharma Biotech Asia Sdn Bhd.
On July 18, the MOH had given conditional approval of two Covid-19 self-test kits, namely the Salixium Covid-19 rapid antigen rapid test (saliva/nasal swab samples) made by Reszon Diagnostic International Sdn Bhd and Gmate Covid-19 Ag saliva for home use by Philosys Co Ltd.
The results of the self-testing should be reported to the authorities via MySejahtera.
