Covid-19: Authorities still working to confirm case of Maldivian patient in UAE

Maldivian authorities are still working to confirm the case of a Maldivian testing positive to coronavirus in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

While the country’s Ministry of Health and Prevention had announced that a Maldivian is among the foreigners that tested positive for Covid-19, Maldives believes that this is an error on the UAE’s part.

The government’s Covid-19 spokesperson Mohamed Mabrook Aziz revealed this during a press conference held at the National Emergency Operations’ Center (NEOC) on Saturday afternoon.

Noting that authorities are working to clarify the matter, Mabrook said that they have received a name of the reported Maldivian patient and added that ‘the name sounds more eastern European than Maldivian’.

Indicating that this might be a mistake on UAE’s part, Mabrook said that the patient “could be from Moldova or somewhere with a similar name as Maldives’.

UAE’s health ministry announced that a Maldivian patient was among the 50 new cases confirmed in the country on March 24, adding that the new cases “are among individuals who had close contact with cases announced previously, as well as people who returned from abroad”.

While authorities work to clarify this case, the first Maldivian patient was confirmed on Friday.

Health Minister Abdulla Ameen made the announcement at a press conference on Friday evening, highlighting that a 38-year-old man that returned to Maldives on March 22 tested positive for Covid-19. He is to have developed symptoms on March 25, and a test was done the next day.

There has been a total of 16 confirmed Covid-19 cases in the country since March 7, including the two Italians whose test results came back after they departed the country. Their flight was quarantined in Russia following the positive results.