China-Brunei joint venture donates laboratory supplies to help in Brunei's fight against COVID-19

Hengyi Industries Sdn Bhd, a petrochemical joint venture between Brunei and China, donated essential laboratory supplies to Brunei's Department of Laboratory Services at the Ministry of Health on Tuesday.

Hengyi Industries is a joint venture between China's Zhejiang Hengyi Group and Damai Holdings, a wholly-owned subsidiary under the Brunei government's Strategic Development Capital Fund, with the two sides owning 70 percent and 30 percent of the shares respectively.

"The donation, which consists of absolute ethyl alcohol, chemical sterilant and fire extinguishers, are urgently needed in Brunei's virology laboratory and will be used to assist with the processing of COVID-19 swab tests in the country," Chen Liancai, Chief Executive Officer of Hengyi Industries, told Xinhua.

"Hengyi would also like to express our most heartfelt appreciation to the Ministry of Health and all of the frontliners for their efforts and contributions in detecting and managing the spread of COVID-19 in the country to keep the public safe against the pandemic," Chen said.

"Hengyi will continue to provide support to the Ministry of Health and help with the fight to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the nation," he added.

Brunei reported 71 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, bringing the national tally to 2,712.

According to the Ministry of Health, all the new cases are local infections. While the source of infection of 47 local cases is still under investigation, there are 24 additional new cases to nine of the existing active clusters.

The cases in these active clusters are individuals who are currently being quarantined and were found to be in contact with several confirmed cases.

There are currently 1,734 active cases being treated and monitored at the National Isolation Center, with eight of them in critical condition and 28 other patients under close monitoring.

Brunei also reported 130 more recoveries and one more death on Tuesday. There have been a total of 966 recovered patients and 12 deaths reported so far in the country.

Meanwhile, the health ministry also announced on Tuesday that starting from Wednesday, until a date to be announced later, "all vaccinations centers nationwide will not be able to provide the COVID-19 vaccination services to anyone who has booked for the first dose."

The health ministry said the postponement "is due to the supply of COVID-19 vaccine that has been reduced rapidly and unexpectedly," adding it is working to get vaccine supplies as soon as possible.