Past experience with other viruses helped Malaysia manage COVID-19 - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR, July 21 -- Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has attributed the Ministry of Health's preparedness to combat the COVID-19 pandemic to having managed and handled previous virus outbreaks like Nipah, SARS, MERS-Cov and H1N1.

"In December last year, when we (Ministry of Health) first heard about the Wuhan, China outbreak, we accepted the fact that it was inevitable the virus will reach our shores.

"We started activating our Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), which coordinates and integrates our preparedness response, with the past experience in managing and handling Nipah virus, SARS, MERS-Cov, H1N1 giving us the preparedness and response protocol...,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said this during a webinar session titled 'COVID-19: What can Malaysia and Kerala, India teach the rest of the world', organised by Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition, that was streamed live through DNDi's Facebook page today.

Also on the panel was Kerala Minister for Health, Social Justice and Woman and Child Development K.K. Shailaja, who is also known as Shailaja Teacher.

Dr Noor Hisham added that the collaboration between the government, various sectors and society also played an important role in bringing down the daily cases of COVID-19.

Meanwhile, Shailaja congratulated Malaysia for reducing the number of daily cases and setting an example for the whole world on tackling this pandemic.

“Malaysia’s response to COVID-19 is seen as being exemplary to the world,” she said.

-- BERNAMA