UAE says death of Dubai-based Filipina not due to novel coronavirus

MANILA, Philippines – The United Arab Emirates has denied that a female Filipino household worker who recently died in Dubai has tested positive for coronavirus.

A report from Gulf News on Thursday said that officials of the Ministry of Health and Prevention have told the newspaper that the “UAE has not recorded any deaths from the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV), and all cases registered in the country have been officially announced.”

“The Dubai Government media office denies the validity of statements by the Philippine Minister of Labour regarding the death of a Filipino woman in Dubai due to novel coronavirus. The deceased was suffering from a respiratory infection and laboratory tests showed she did not have the virus,” the report said.

UAE was referring to Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III who earlier Thursday said that a previous report on the still-unidentified overseas Filipino worker (OFW) did not show coronavirus as a cause of death but medical reports cited coronavirus a day later.

“Initially, sabi hindi coronavirus – that was a February 1 report.  Pero February 2, coronavirus na, and I met the daughter kanina, and they’re going there to see (her),” he said in an ambush interview. “Pagka-coronavirus, i-cremate agad.”

(Initially, they said it’s not coronavirus – that was February 1 report. But on February 2, they said it was coronavirus, and I met the daughter a while ago, and they’re going to see her. If it is coronavirus, she will be cremated immediately.)

READ: Filipina domestic worker in Dubai dead from coronavirus – Bello

According to Gulf News, it contacted the World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN special agency also denied Bello’s statement.

WHO told the Gulf News that the organization “made the necessary contacts with the concerned party who confirmed that the case is not a 2019-nCoV nor a MERS-CoV. The cause of death is pneumonia.”