China's experiences helpful for Malaysia to fight COVID-19: health official

KUALA LUMPUR, April 24 (Xinhua) -- China's experiences in fighting the COVID-19 are helpful for Malaysia to formulate its own strategy and action plan against the pandemic, a Malaysian health official said Friday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said China's experiences and expertise originated from the fact that China had faced the outbreak earlier than Malaysia, and Malaysia learned a lot from China in terms of its action plan and strategic planning.

"The policy and the action plan that we have are almost in accordance with what they have done. So we are learning from them because they are ahead of us for two months, so I think this is a very good discussion between Malaysia and China to share the information," Noor Hisham told a daily press briefing.

He was referring to the discussion between Malaysian experts and medical personnel and the Chinese anti-COVID-19 medical consultant expert team, which is now in Malaysia to share China's experiences in fighting the pandemic.

Experts from the two countries disused a wide range of issues related to the COVID-19, including public health, medicine, the identification of the virus and the development of vaccine, among others, he said, adding that Malaysia may join the clinical research if the trials of vaccine in China turn up positive results.

Noor Hisham also said Malaysia is installing automated testing equipment by China's Beijing Genome Institute (BGI) in two labs, which will boost Malaysia's test capacity by some 6,000 daily, as Malaysia is inching close to achieve a daily test capacity of more than 16,000.

The number of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia totaled at 5,691 on Friday after 88 new cases were recorded. The fatalities stand at 96.

The eight-member Chinese expert team was organized by China's National Health Commission and selected by the health commission of Guangdong province. They have visited hospitals, labs, health institutions since they arrived last Saturday.