by Nancy Nais
KUCHING, April 26: A team of medical experts sent by the People’s Republic of China arrived here for a three-day visit this afternoon.
The visit by the eight-member team from Guangdong province was organised by China’s National Health Commission.
Ministry of Health (MOH) Sarawak principal assistant director Lee Wee Ju said the eight medical doctors will meet with the state’s medical health experts and personnel tomorrow to share China’s experience in containing the Covid-19 pandemic.
They are scheduled to attend a full-day video conference session with state health experts and doctors from several government hospitals in Kuching, Sri Aman, Sibu, Kapit, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang.
Medical personnel from private hospitals will also attend.
“The purpose of this visit and conference is to get a better understanding of Covid-19, how China overcame the pandemic and Malaysia’s measure against it. Kuching and Samarahan are red zones; therefore, by sharing opinions and experiences of what they have been through, we hope to have some idea how to improve the situation here in Sarawak.
“Our specialists here will also share their experiences as to what we’ve done so far, whether correct or otherwise, including our system,” Lee said when met at the airport.
As the current Covid-19 pandemic is totally new to the world, Lee pointed out that Sarawak needs the help of those who have experience in dealing with it, which is China.
“China is two months’ ahead of us in going through Covid-19. So they are here to help us to move forward and come up with better measures,” Lee added.
According to the schedule, the team will have four sessions with representatives from private hospitals and experts from all government clinical hospitals in the morning.
This will be followed by video conferencing sessions with doctors from Sarawak General Hospital as well as Sibu, Miri, Limbang, Kapit, Bintulu and Sri Aman hospitals in the afternoon.
“There will also be a dialogue session for traditional and complimentary medicine practitioners in the evening,” Lee added.
The team will depart for Kota Kinabalu on Tuesday (April 28) for similar sessions there and then return to Kuala Lumpur on Thursday (April 30) before heading back to China on Friday (May 1).
Thanking the Chinese government for helping Malaysia, Lee said the expenses for the whole trip including chartered flight all the way to Borneo was borned by the Chinese government.
The doctors from China also brought with them more personal protective equipment (PPE) for Sarawak and Sabah frontliners. — DayakDaily
