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Timeline National/Country Laboratory Capacity for

COVID-19 (RT-PCR)

Diagram 1: Malaysia’s laboratories testing capacities from January 2020 until June 2020.

The next is the timeline of National or Country Laboratory Capacity. In January 2020, there
were 2 laboratories: the National Public Health Laboratory (MKAK or NPHL) and the
Institute for Medical Research (IMR) doing RT-PCR for COVID-19 with capacity of about
700. By mid of February, we upscaled the RT-PCR for COVID-19 testing capacity by
recruiting MOH hospital laboratories, all 4 other regional public health laboratories,
laboratories from the universities, military hospitals and the private sector. So, in early April,
a total of 40 laboratories are ready to do COVID-19 testing with a maximum capacity of
8640. And now, our COVID-19 testing capacity is 36,812 by 55 laboratories.