2nd Filipino to contract novel coronavirus, confirmed

In a report by the Emirates News Agency, two confirmed cases of the nCoV included a Filipino and a Chinese national. The source of the report is from the gulf country’s Ministry of Health and Prevention, which assured that it will continue reporting new cases of the virus that may be observed. (Pixabay photo)

Another Filipino is confirmed to be infected with the novel coronavirus (nCoV), the state news agency of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) confirmed on Saturday, February 8.

In a report by the Emirates News Agency, two confirmed cases of the nCoV included a Filipino and a Chinese national. The source of the report is from the gulf country’s Ministry of Health and Prevention, which assured that it will continue reporting new cases of the virus that may be observed.

This is the second case of a Filipino being confirmed to contract the virus that originated from Wuhan, China. The first one is a Filipino seafarer onboard the cruise ship Diamond Princess in Japan, where its passengers and crew are currently quarantined. There are 537 other Filipinos in the said cruise ship.

In its website, the Princess Cruises’ February 7 update on the quarantine said that though it is “facing many limitations and challenges, we are doing our best to deliver the ship’s most critical needs.”

“We are also working to provide as much care and comfort as we can to everyone onboard. We hope these gestures will lift the spirits of those onboard in this difficult time,” Rai Caluori, EVP at Princess Cruises wrote in the said update.

Just this week, an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) died on February 5 in Dubai and was mistakenly linked to an “undetermined coronavirus strain” by the Philippine government through Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) issued a statement right after to apologize.

[READ: Bello apologizes to Dubai over OFW’s nCoV death announcement]

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