March 17, 2022, 04:25 PM
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Employees in Malaysia are tampering with Covid-19 self-test kits to skip work and still get paid, The Star reported on March 16.
The ruse
An employee who pulled off the ruse told the Malaysian media: “It is easy. Nobody can detect it unless they check the photo thoroughly."
The trickery involved using photo-editing software to doctor a picture of the self-test kit result.
As the man was Covid-19 negative, his test kit result showed only one line.
But he cloned the single line and placed it next to the "T" indicator using software, which was impossible to differentiate, to generate a positive test result and got seven days off work.
An example of what the result looks like is as follows:
Original
Photo edited using software
Submitted result to authorities
To complete the ruse, the doctored image had to be submitted to the Covid-19 tracing mobile app MySejahtera.
The man then said he received a Home Surveillance Order shortly after.
He was not called to go to the clinic or assessment centre as he was deemed to be not a high-risk patient, so no one found out.
Others faked positive result in lieu of taking leave
Other people have also boasted about submitting positive Covid-19 test results from friends or relatives.
The Star reported that one woman faked her Covid-19 test as a last resort by using her friend's positive test result to get quarantine leave to take care of her two-year-old son.
She claimed that her babysitter had to go back to Perak due to a family emergency and her own leave application was denied.
Employers aware of practice
Employers in Malaysia have responded.
In a separate The Star article out on the same day, employers said they believed that the possibility for abuse is there with the current Covid-19 reporting system as no medical certificates from a physician are required.
The Malaysian authorities have advised employers to take their own stern disciplinary action against the offenders.
Information on faking test results have circulated online.
A widely-watched TikTok video claimed lemon juice could yield a positive antigen rapid test result.
In Singapore, those who cheat on their antigen rapid test result can be sentenced to jail.
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