Bello apologizes to Dubai over OFW’s nCoV death announcement

FILE: Department of Labor and Employment Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday (Sept. 27, 2018) (PNA photo by Gil Calinga)

MANILA — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Friday apologized to the Dubai government in the United Arab Emirates for announcing that the death of a female overseas Filipino worker (OFW) in the city was due to the 2019 novel coronavirus (nCoV).

“Secretary Bello nonetheless wishes to apologize to the government of Dubai for the confusion and whatever anxiety that the announcement may have caused,” the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said in a statement.

Bello’s clarification came after he received a belated report from the Philippine Labor Office in Dubai containing results of confirmatory tests by the Pathology and Genetics Department of the Dubai Health Authority on the OFW’s specimen.

The results showed that the deceased OFW tested negative for nCoV.

“The Labor department today (Friday) clarified that the death of OFW Amalia Collado Daproza in Al Zahra Hospital in the United Arab Emirates was not a case of nCoV as earlier reported,” Bello said.

Bello, in a press briefing Thursday, announced that the OFW died of an undetermined coronavirus strain based on earlier information provided by his office.

In a Gulf News report, Dubai’s Ministry of Health and Prevention, however, said Daproza died of pneumonia and not due to nCoV.