ISTANBUL — COVID-19-hit countries should "learn from China" as the pandemic has been tightening its grip on the world, said Ahu Ozyurt, a famous Turkish journalist.

Given that the European Union is facing a big test, "there are lots of lessons they could learn from China," said Ozyurt, who has more than 440,000 followers on Twitter.

"China's discipline in the fight against this virus and its ability to generate new ideas should be discussed more," she added.

Many countries, such as Italy and Spain, have learned valuable experience from China, Ozyurt noted, saying that Beijing could share more on how to curb the spread of the virus step by step.

More than 30,000 COVID-19 deaths have been reported worldwide, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE).

As of 3:30 pm March 28 (1930 GMT), there were more than 649,000 confirmed cases globally, with 30,249 deaths, an interactive map maintained by the CSSE showed.