YANGON, April 30 (Xinhua) -- A team of medical personnel from the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) on Thursday provided assistance to Myanmar military in building a laboratory for testing COVID-19.
The Chinese military medical team helped their Myanmar counterparts in installation of laboratory equipment and related materials, which were donated by the Chinese side, and provided operational guidance of the equipment at the laboratory at the No. 1 Defence Services General Hospital in Mingaladon township, Yangon.
The Chinese military medics have previously provided recommendations on the layout and structures of the laboratory and the team will continue conducting systematic and efficient training to laboratory practitioners of Myanmar's medical team relating to collecting and transporting samples and analyzing the test results, Ma Yajun, a member of the Chinese military medical team told Xinhua.
Bai Chong, head of the Chinese military medical team, said that anti-pandemic related discussions have been conducted between the two military medical teams in the one-week period and expressed his hope that the recommendations given by the Chinese side could be effective in diagnosis and treatment for COVID-19 in Myanmar.
"The assistance from the Chinese military medical team is quite helpful and the equipment provided by the team such as automatic extraction machines are effective for laboratory works as those machines can minimize the direct exposure with the virus," Capt. Nay Myo Aung, microbiologist who will work at the military's laboratory told Xinhua.
The laboratory will start operation next week.
The military medical team from the PLA, along with emergency medical supplies, arrived in Yangon on April 24 to assist in Myanmar's COVID-19 fight.
A 12-member medical expert team from China's Yunnan Province arrived in Myanmar as the first batch of medical assistance from China on April 8 and carried out collaborations with Myanmar's health authorities for two weeks, drawing on their frontline experiences in China.
As of Thursday, Myanmar has reported 150 confirmed COVID-19 cases with six deaths, according to latest figures released by the Health and Sports Ministry.