Cooperation on fighting pandemic

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia and Italy can learn from each other’s experiences and approaches in battling Covid-19, said Italy’s ambassador to Malaysia Cristiano Maggipinto.

He said information sharing at the international level needs to be strengthened, as multiple variants of the disease have emerged, which might prolong the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to Maggipinto, the more we know about the virus and the cause of the disease, the better we would be able to fight the disease.

“All of us can learn from each other’s experiences on how to treat the disease,” he said.

Maggipinto pointed out that Italy and Malaysia had already established cooperation on Covid19 since the beginning of the pandemic and the two countries are liaising on this aspect.

“We also had online meetings with Italian, Malaysian and Asean experts about the management of the pandemic and how to react to it and so on,” he added.

On the Covid-19 situation in Italy, he said the government had gradually eased lockdown restrictions from April 26 after the country reported a steady decline in cases, Bernama reported.

Maggipinto said Italy had imposed a very strict lockdown after it was severely hit by the pandemic last year.

“In March 2020, the situation in Italian hospitals was very difficult. Now, the situation is under control. Our hospitals have much improved their capabilities to face the pandemic,” he said.

He also attributed the improvement to the country’s vaccination programme, which was rolled out at the end of last year.