GEORGE TOWN, Feb 24 — The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) today urged the government to limit the sales of Covid-19 self-test kits to only authorised pharmacies and retail outlets to facilitate monitoring by the Medical Device Authority (MDA).
Its president Mohideen Abdul Kader said following the surge in demand for the self-test kits with the spread and increase in coronavirus cases, consumers are having difficulty in identifying the validity of the test kits.
According to him, the high demand for Covid-19 test kits has prompted some parties to sell fake test kits or those not approved by MDA.
“CAP urges the government to limit the sale of test kits to authorised pharmacies and retail outlets. The convenience to buy at supermarkets, sundry shops and petrol stations will complicate monitoring by MDA," he said in a statement today.
He added the false-negative test results would give a person a false sense of complacency, which could help in the spread of the virus and deprive the person of early medical intervention.
Mohideen said checks by CAP found that Covid-19 self-test kits are easily available at pharmacies, sundry shops, convenience stores and petrol stations, besides being sold widely online.
He said although MDA has identified a list of 12 companies and their products that it had approved, it is inconvenient for consumers to verify at the point of purchase.
“To facilitate consumers' ease of identifying an MDA-approved device, CAP suggests creating a common logo combined with a QR code that consumers can easily identify and, if they want, scan the QR code for details of the product,” he added.
Mohideen said the current system of carrying MDA’s serial number is not helpful as it takes time to search the packaging compared to a prominent logo.
— Bernama
