Tawau to get screening lab in 2 weeks
Published on: Thursday, October 22, 2020
By: Bernama
Some of the firefighters donating blood in aid of the blood bank in Tawau.
TAWAU: Tawau will have a laboratory to process Covid-19 samples to obtain the results, when it is ready in two weeks.Health officer of the Tawau District Health Office, Dr G. Navindran, said the laboratory was being set up at the Tawau Health Clinic at Kubota.
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“When this lab is ready, the Covid-19 test results will be known faster,” he said when met by reporters after witnessing the opening of the Malaysian Armed Forces (ATM) Field Hospital, here, on Tuesday.
Currently, the swab test samples are being sent to the DGi Laboratory in Kota Kinabalu which can process 1,000 samples daily, apart from the public health lab at Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Universiti Malaysia Sabah lab.
Meanwhile, Dr Navindran said it was estimated that 8,000 screening tests had been conducted in Tawau, but 3,000 to 4,000 samples had not been processed.
“This is laboratory overload as all districts are conducting screening and sending the samples to the same lab (in Kota Kinabalu),” he added.
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Meanwhile, the residents here welcome the targeted screening carried out by the Ministry of Health.
“The village heads assist in ensuring that the residents go for screening but there are places, especially the coastal areas where many foreign migrants live with the response being poor,” said Dr Navindran.
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Meanwhile, Tawau Hospital Director Dr Norlimah Arsat said non-Covid-19 patients treated at the Field Hospital and in stable condition were not allowed to receive visitors so as to curb the viral infection.
She said the establishment of the Field Hospital enabled Tawau Hospital to focus on treating critical Covid-19 patients, while Tawau Hospital could also have more beds to treat level 3 to level 5 Covid-19 patients.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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