Responding to rumours on the internet that there are false negatives in RTK kits on market, Noor Hisham said that the kits have a false positive or false negative rate of about 5%.
According to the Director General of Health, Tan Sri Noor Hisham, RTK Ag kits approved for sale in market must have a sensitivity of at least 95%, so there is a 5% chance of a false negative or false positive result.
According to Noor Hisham, factors that can lead to false negatives or false positives also include contamination of the environment with the virus and cross-contamination of the test by the person being diagnosed.
Noor Hisham urges public to follow the instructions of the rapid antigen test kit for more accurate results. No matter the test results are positive, negative or invalid, people need to report through MySejahtera.
In addition, Noor Hisham noted that confirmed individuals do not need to repeat the test after completing isolation, as the highly sensitive polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) can still detect viral genetic material in the respiratory tract. This material cannot reproduce and is therefore unlikely to be transmitted to others.
