Preparations to stockpile equipment , monitor cases , and treat COVID-19 patients had been made since 31 December 2019 , in Malaysia during the pandemic .
Spearheaded by Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah under the Health Ministry of two successive government administrations , preparations to stockpile equipment , monitor cases and treat COVID-19 patients had been made since 31 December 2019 , when a World Health Organization ( WHO ) report emerged an outbreak of a `` 2019 novel coronavirus '' in Hubei .
2020 coronavirus pandemic in Malaysia