Page 151 - MALAYSIA HEALTH SECTOR RESPONSE TO COVID-19 PANDEMIC: PERSPECTIVES FROM THE FIELD

7.2 Enhancing National Laboratory Capacity for COVID-19 Test

As of 2nd December 2020, there were 62 laboratories involved in carrying
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out COVID-19 tests nationwide . The daily test capacity had been increased
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by 5-fold from 11,546 in early March 2020 to 59,485 in December 2020 .
Such expansion in the laboratory testing capacity could be attributed to
laboratories' involvement in public hospitals, national public health
laboratories, IMR, university hospital laboratories, Malaysian Genome
Institute laboratory, Malaysian Armed Forces laboratories, and private
laboratories.

7.3 Strengthening Laboratory Preparedness for COVID-19 Tests in Sabah

The third wave that struck Sabah had drawn urgent attention from MOH
Malaysia. MOH Malaysia had undertaken various efforts to increase capacity,
mobilising assets and human resources to ensure that the healthcare
services in Sabah were able to cope in controlling the COVID-19 transmission
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situation. Among the measures that had been taken included :

Increasing laboratory capacity for RT-PCR testing in Sabah

The processing of all COVID-19 samples in Sabah was spearheaded by the
National Public Health Laboratory in Kota Kinabalu and supported by Queen
Elizabeth I Hospital, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, and Tawau Kubota Health
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Clinic . MOH Malaysia had increased the capacity of laboratories to carry
out real-time diagnostic RT-PCR tests used for COVID-19 infection
confirmation.

The RT-PCR testing in Sabah started in February 2020, at the Kota Kinabalu
Public Health Laboratory with a capacity of 200 tests per day, which was
later extended to Queen Elizabeth I Hospital (100 tests/day) and Universiti
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Malaysia Sabah laboratory (100 tests/day) in April 2020 . In the first and
second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in Sabah, the total daily COVID-19
testing capacity in the laboratories throughout Sabah was only 400 tests .
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Following the explosive rise in the number of COVID-19 cases during the
third wave in Sabah, the ability to perform extensive RT-PCR in the shortest
time possible was crucial in ensuring the rapid treatment and isolation of
COVID-19 patients. To achieve that objective, MOH Malaysia had increased
laboratories' capacities that could carry out RT-PCR tests. The National

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