Passing the RT-PCR test no longer a criterion for Covid-19 patients to be discharged

Sunday 28 Apr 2024

KUALA LUMPUR (June 12): Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the RT-PCR (reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction) test is no longer a discharge criterion for Covid-19 patients.

This is because patients have still found to be positive for the virus when tested with the RT-PCR, even when they have already recovered, show no symptoms and do not infect others.

Thus, the ministry has concluded that the positive results shown by the recovered patients tested with the RT-PCR are caused by dead virus cells (such as deoxyribonucleic acid or DNA), Noor Hisham said in a statement.

The same has been reported by other countries like South Korea, China and Singapore.

He said a study in Korea showed even though recovered patients have tested positive again for the virus, none of their close contacts were infected.

Meanwhile, studies conducted throughout the world have shown that Covid-19 patients are most infectious between two- and three days before their symptoms develop. The infectiousness of a patient will fall to a very low level, seven days after symptoms appear, he said.

This is in line with the World Health Organisation's "Clinical management of Covid-19, Interim guidance, May 2020", which stated most Covid-19 positive patients can only spread the disease within 10 days of the onset of the disease.

As such, the Ministry of Health has updated its guidelines for the discharge of recovered Covid-19 patients.

For symptomatic patients, they can only be discharged if they no longer have fever for three days (without the use of fever medication), with at least 14 days passed since their symptoms began.

As for asymptomatic patients, they can only be discharged two weeks after they have tested for the virus — provided they do not show any symptoms after being tested positive.

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