Bello apologizes to Dubai gov’t over announcement on death of Filipina worker

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has apologized to the Dubai government for the confusion and anxiety that his announcement on the death of a Filipina worker there might have caused.

Gulf News reported that the Dubai Government media office earlier denied the “validity of statements by the Philippine Minister of Labour regarding the death of a Filipino woman in Dubai due to novel coronavirus.”

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

“The deceased was suffering from a respiratory infection and laboratory tests showed she did not have the virus,” the report added.

However, DOLE clarified that Bello did not say the Dubai-based Filipina worker died of novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV).

“The Labor Secretary on Thursday announced that the OFW had died of ‘coronavirus’ based on earlier information provided (to) his office,” DOLE said. “The secretary, however, did not say it was the novel coronavirus.”

“Secretary Bello nonetheless wishes to apologize to the government of Dubai for the confusion and whatever anxiety that the announcement may have caused,” it added.

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

DOLE said a belated report received from the Philippine Labor Office in Dubai showed that results of confirmatory tests conducted by the Pathology and Genetics Department of the Dubai Health Authority on the Filipina’s specimen yielded negative of the novel coronavirus.

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.”

Edited by KGA