We examined trends and differences in the average cumulative rates of COVID-19 cases and deaths per million (incidence and mortality rates) among 11 Asian nations where malaria is endemic (China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines) and compared these trends and differences to 11 western nations (United States, Canada, Great Britain, Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Portugal, Netherlands, Switzerland and Austria) during the five month period, jan through may 2020. The mean rates of incidence and mortality for the two sets of countries diverge markedly,  the incidence and mortality rates for Asian countries (130 per million and 3.6 per million, respectively) were 1/27th and 1/89th of the corresponding rates for North American and Western European countries (3,481 per million and 321 per million).