Chinese experts to exchange experiences on Covid-19: Health DG

CORONAVIRUS | A team of Chinese medical professionals will be arriving in Malaysia from China in two weeks’ time to observe medical practices here as well as to exchange experiences on fighting the Covid-19 pandemic.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the medical team will not be here to run the Malaysian health services but merely to observe and exchange experiences.

“In two weeks’ time, the Chinese medical team will be here and basically they will see the performance of our hospitals and share their experiences because they have been through the experience of handling Covid-19.

“They are not here to run our services but to share their experiences.

“Some of their initiatives are unprecedented, we have not seen. We would like to listen to them, learn from them and perhaps they can learn from us as well,” he said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

He said they will also looking into how to collaborate with China in terms of research into the disease.

Once the virus can be isolated, the whole genomic sequence can be mapped out and the new virus can be easily identified, he said.

It has also been reported that there are two different strains of the virus though Noor Hisham said he is unsure whether Malaysia has a different strain or not.

He is also unsure whether this strain has led Malaysia to have a lower fatality rate and lower admissions to intensive care units than other countries.

On whether there has been anyone under enhanced movement control orders who have been uncooperative, Noor Hisham said there have been no issues so far.

“We always engage with the patients, what to do, what not to do, explain to them what to do and they are part of the team to manage Covid-19.

“It is the same message we want to tell people out there, when we come to you, it’s because we care for you, that’s why we want to test you to prevent you from infecting your loved ones,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said, the Health Ministry’s standard operating procedure (SOP) for patients who have recovered from Covid-19 and about to be discharged is to provide them with counselling and to inform them that reinfection is possible.

However, he said, the risk of reinfection is low as patients would have likely built up enough antibodies to fight the virus.

Noor Hisham also revealed that they received a new test kit from South Korea and they will be conducting a clinical trial soon to gauge the effectiveness of this test kit.

He said the most important thing now was to find a way of testing for the virus which was fast and accurate. - Mkini