KUCHING, Sept 13 — Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) adviser Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian today said that a discussion with medical experts from the committee and the state Health Department was conducted to consider use of RTK Antigen tests to speed up the process of Covid-19 diagnoses.

He said the objective at this stage of the pandemic is to diagnose Covid-19 as fast as possible so SDMC can enforce a quarantine order to break the local transmission.

"I was disturbed to find out about the delays in the PCR tests, with backlogs up to last five days due to state Health Department sending samples to private labs in Kuala Lumpur as per Health Ministry’s arrangements due to the high increase in testings," Dr Sim, who is also the local government and housing minister, said in a statement posted on his Facebook page last night.

Yesterday, Sarawak registered the highest single-day 5291 cases, the most in the country.

Dr Sim said 99.9 per cent of the new cases were under Category One and Two, either without symptoms or with mild symptoms.

"Unfortunately, Sarawak recorded eight deaths of Covid-19 infections," he said, adding that Sabah registered 1,717 cases and 84 deaths yesterday.

He said the high percentage of vaccination among the eligible 18-years-old group and above has resulted in lesser number of deaths in Sarawak.