MY brother’s housemate tested positive for COVID-19 early this morning. ‘Confirmed Case – CAT 1’, the COVID-19 lab test results read.
The housemate, who received his second dose of the vaccine more than three weeks ago, had a Cycle Threshold (Ct) value of 17.9, which my brother said was “pretty bad”.
In a Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) report, Ct value refers the number of amplification cycles required for the fluorescent signal to cross a certain threshold.
The fewer cycles required to spot the virus, or the lower the CT value is, the higher the estimated viral load a sample may contain.
My brother immediately went out to purchase a saliva-based self-test kit. “Negative,” he announced half an hour later, breathing a sigh of relief.
What he, like so many other people out there, did not get, was why the test kit from Korea was exorbitantly priced at RM40.
The announcement that the Government was capping the retail price for COVID-19 self-test kits at RM19.90 (and wholesale purchase at RM16 a unit) came shortly after.
The ceiling price, according to news reports, will take effect only from Sept 5 onwards.
While “finally!” seems like the best reaction to this announcement, one cannot help but resent the fact that the decision had come a few months too late.
Recall that there had been calls to reduce the price of COVID-19 screening tests since the beginning of 2021 (or maybe even before then), with certain quarters suggesting that the price reduction could bolster the Health Ministry’s pandemic response.
Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Associate Professor Dr Malina Osman, for example, told New Straits Times in February 2021 that making COVID-19 screening affordable was vital to reduce the burden on government facilities.
“Cost is still one of the biggest limiting factors in our attempt to improve mass testing.
“At present, RTK Antigen test kits cost about RM40 when purchased in bulk. I believe lowering the cost of screening is possible if we have price control mechanisms in place,” she remarked back then.
But back to the Government’s latest decision.
What was infuriating was the fact that it took the powers that be this long to finally come to the realisation that the current price tag for COVID-19 test kits is simply beyond the affordability range of many Malaysians out there, especially those from the B40 segment.
In fact, irate Malaysians have taken to social media to complain that, at RM19.90 a pop, these test kits were still too pricey.
Why, some had even suggested that the COVID-19 test kits be sold for as low as RM10 or better, be given out to every household for free!
Those who frequently need to get tested would no doubt feel the pinch.
For a family of two adults and three children, for example, the test kits would be RM99.50 per week x 4 weeks = RM398 per month.
For many struggling Malaysians, RM398 a month is quite a lot of money, which could be better off spent on putting food on the table for the family.
With that in mind, surely many Malaysians would be interested to hear the answer to the most important question of them all: is RM19.90 really the lowest that the Government could go? – Sept 3, 2021.
