Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co makes a donation to a high-level expert team led by academician Zhong Nanshan (third from right) on April 8. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

Dairy giant Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group Co made a donation of 5 million yuan ($707,000) to a high-level expert team headed by Zhong Nanshan, a high-profile academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, on April 8, local officials said.

The donation is expected to be used to support anti-epidemic research into the novel coronavirus outbreak and promote scientific and technological development in the field of health. 

Since the outbreak, Zhong has led his team to fight the epidemic on the front line and has become one of the most familiar figures in China.

Officials said the team developed a rapid immunoglobulin M (IgM) test strip for the COVID-19 infection.

Expert team leader Zhong Nanshan attends the donation ceremony and delivers a speech. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn] 

The team and the Shenyang Institute of Automation in the Chinese Academy of Sciences, jointly developed a new intelligent pharyngeal swab sampling robot system.

This uses remote robots to complete tissue sampling, effectively avoiding medical staff infections and effectively aids the development of epidemic prevention and control measures.

Since the epidemic outbreak, Yili has donated a total of 280 million yuan and has continuously supported three Chinese academician teams that are led by Zhong Nanshan, Li Lanjuan and Cheng Jing.

Yili Group makes another donation to medical teams that have aided Hubei province, on March 31. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]