Tedros said that since the year 2000, good progress had been made, but "we are at the crossroads," while noting that the fight against malaria needs to be sustained.

"We have more than 200 million cases of malaria a year and more than 90 percent of them are in Africa, so the focus on Africa is important," said Tedros, an Ethiopian who had specialized in malaria before taking the helm of the WHO last year.

Chinese officials has explained that in the case of China, to fulfill and assess the elimination process and achieve the goal of certification by the World Health Organization, China has adopted the county, prefecture, and sub-national verification since 2012.

Cui said that the Ministry of Health in China jointly with 12 ministries issued its National Malaria Elimination Action Plan 2010-2020 in June 2010, to kick off the country's campaign to eradicate the disease.

She said the overall goals of the malaria elimination campaign in China were set to achieve complete elimination in the country by 2020.