SIBU: Rejang Medical Centre (RMC) has set up a Polymerase Chain Reaction (real time PCR) laboratory, the first PCR laboratory at a private hospital in the district to ensure faster PCT test results.
Assistant Minister of Local Government and Housing Dr Annuar Rapaee, who is responsible for public health affairs in the state, said the laboratory was equipped with the latest PCR machine that could produce Covid-19 results within two hours.
He also said that that would also solve logistical problems as previously RMC sent their samples to the Borneo Medical Centre (BMC) in Kuching which caused delays for the Covid-19 results.
“Now, we can do the test at RMC. The cost for this laboratory is around RM500,000; RM200,000 for the building and RM300,000 for the equipment.
“I would like to thank RMC and BMC because since the first day of this pandemic, we were ready to receive samples from the health ministry. RMC also assisted us with Active Case Detection (ACD) targeted for Tiong Hua which ended last Sunday.
“This is a good partnership between the government and the private sector as this partnership is important to resolve the Covid-19 outbreak in Sibu,” he said when met at the RMC PCR Laboratory launching ceremony today.
Also present were Senator Robert Lau Hui Yew, Sibu divisional health officer Dr Teh Jo Hun and RMC managing director Dr John Tang.
Dr Annuar, who is also the Assistant Minister of Education, Science and Technology Research, said the health department would continue to send samples to the RMC to ensure the Covid-19 test results are released quickly.
He said test results would be slow if it only relied on the government as the government could not do many tests at one time.
“For the ministry, we can only do 1,000 tests every day if we want. But we cannot do it right now because if we do it non-stop, we need manpower,” explained Dr Annuar who is Nangka assemblyman.
He added that sometimes Sibu hospitals send 1,000 samples to laboratories and private hospitals here.
According to the Coordinator of the Sibu Divisional Disaster Management Committee (JPBBS), a total of 88,148 swab tests have been taken since the outbreak began in Sibu in January.
For the Tiong Hua zone, he disclosed that RMC had tested about 2,000 samples with only seven positive cases.
“The positive rate is very low in the Tiong Hua Zone, although you can see every day, one or two cases are still there, but the positive rate is very low,” he explained.
