China ambassador: You can count on us to end coronavirus

CORONAVIRUS | Malaysia can count on China to end the novel coronavirus that hit its Hubei province, assured China's ambassador to Malaysia Bai Tian.

This is despite the virus, in which the Chinese central city of Wuhan is the epicentre, infecting 17,205 people and killing 361 as of Sunday.

"Currently, the situation is still grim and pressing, however, measures and actions are showing promising results.

"We have now 328 cured cases, and the rising tide of confirmed cases is ebbing," Bai Tian (above, left) said when delivering his speech at the Federation of Chinese Association of Malaysia's (Hua Zong) Chinese New Year celebration.

"We have finished building two specialised hospitals in Wuhan in just 10 days. We are pouring every resource needed for vaccine development.

"With restrictive actions on human mobility, the spread of the virus is being effectively curbed both in China and around the world.

"I feel proud of my country and its people. You can count on us that China has every confidence and capability to put an end to this epidemic," he said.

He expressed his gratitude that Malaysia is with China in fighting the battle.

Speaking to the media later, Bai said China nationals in Malaysia were not discriminated against unlike how some of them were treated in other parts of the world.

"No. I never heard of such a report." 

China has however arranged for planes to send its citizens, who came to Malaysia temporarily, back home, he said. 

This included getting a group of Chinese citizens from Kota Kinabalu, Sabah back to Hubei, he said.

"I am most concerned with those from Hubei. Last week, we organised a flight to get them back to Wuhan from Kota Kinabalu.

"There are not many Chinese tourists left in the country, they are continuously going back to China," he said.

On Jan 30, Foreign Affairs Minister Saifuddin Abdullah urged Malaysians to cease looking at Putrajaya's efforts to resolve the novel coronavirus outbreak as a racial issue.

He said it was merely a coincidence the epidemic came from China.

"When we want to resolve the novel coronavirus problem, people are trying to play up the racial issue. (But) the novel coronavirus is coincidentally from China," said Saifuddin.