MANILA, Philippines
— The Department of Labor and Employment confirmed that the Filipina household worker who died in Dubai died of coronavirus but it is not clear which strain.
Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III said it is not yet clear if the 58-year-old Filipina worker died from the 2019 Novel Coronavirus Acute Respiratory Disease (2019-
nCoV ARD) or the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-
CoV).
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Bello said
it was confirmed last February 2 that
the Filipina worker was infected by a coronavirus, according to a report by radio dzMM.
The Labor chief did not identify the victim but said she was from General Santos and worked in Dubai as a household service worker for 28 years.
According to Bello, the Filipina's remains would have to
be cremated immediately because of the virus.
The first cases of the 2019-
nCoV ARD in the Middle East have
been confirmed in the United Arab Emirates January 29.
The first confirmed cases in the Middle East are four members of a family that traveled from Wuhan City, the epicenter of the outbreak in China's Hubei province, according to a report from CNBC.
As of February 5, the World Health Organization has recorded 24,554 confirmed cases of the new coronavirus globally, most of which are from China.
China's National Health Commission reported that the outbreak has reached 28,018 nationwide with a death toll of 563. — Patricia Lourdes Viray