KUALA LUMPUR: A consortium of Malaysia’s leading private laboratory network has launched the country’s largest Covid-19 collection and testing programme to assist effort to ‘flatten the curve’.
The consortium of three associated laboratories comprises Gribbles Pathology Malaysia, Quantum Diagnostics and Clinipath Malaysia.
The participating laboratories will soon be bidable to conduct over 5,000 tests daily with 24-hour turnaround time.
Patients would have access to reliable and quicker testing at an affordable price, the consortium said.
It said the programme was being rolled out in phases with the first drive-through service starting on April 9 at Clinipath’s headquarters in Klang and tbooking commencing on April 8.
It said with the same customer service mentality, all the Covid-19 collection sites would service those who order the test from any one of the Consortium laboratory’s websites.
“While Malaysia has introduced measures to curb the spread of the disease and a number of hospitals have begun offering drive-through services, the challenge of poor access to Covid-19 testing still remains across the country,” it added.
Malaysia was testing at a current rate of 1,255 tests per million people compared to 6,800 tests per million people in Singapore and 6,500 tests per million people in South Korea, it said.
The consortium chairman Tan Sri Dr Yahya Awang said it had been receiving requests from patients, doctors and partner hospitals seeking a safe, affordable and accessible solution for Covid-19 collection.
“With our wide network in Malaysia, we are in a unique position to provide this solution.
“We have been working tirelessly with our partners to roll out this programme to aid contain the spread of Covid-19 in the country,” said Yahya.