Collaboration with MERCY Malaysia for COVID-19 testing at UMBI

In collaboration with MERCY Malaysia, UMBI conducted the COVID-19 test for 3,000 refugees registered under the UNHCR (Myanmar, Pakistan), the B40 group, single mothers and homeless individuals. The swab process was held at the UMBI Building (13-17 July 2020), Pasar Baru Klang (20-24 July 2020) and in Kota Bharu (10-14 August 2020). About 25-30 volunteers from MERCY Malaysia and 5 officers from The Malaysian Cohort (TMC) project were involved in the swab process. RNA isolation and RT-PCR were performed by staff from TMC and UMBI. On 15 July 2020, Dr. Elizabeth Lee, CEO of Sunway University and Sunway Education Group visited our COVID-19 Testing Lab, together with Associate Prof. Dr. Shalimar and Dr. Mohammad Iqbal from MERCY Malaysia. This visit also witnessed the handover of all personal protective equipment (PPE) from the PPE Sewing Project (sew by students from Sunway University) to MERCY Malaysia. This program is part of UMBI’s corporate social responsibility to assist MERCY by offering the COVID-19 test at a reasonable and affordable price. Thank you for your support! This project was highly successful and we hope to collaborate with MERCY Malaysia again in future.