- The Ministry of Health and Sports is setting up 24-hour hotlines in their concentrated efforts to monitor and prevent the spread of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV). These tasks include receiving public reports and conducting field checks, disseminating genuine news, sharing health information, and monitoring news circulating on social media and the Internet. From among them:
(a) On 5 February 2020, the Ayeyawady Region Government investigated a report of a Chinese worker and one other having high fevers and coughing at a wool textile factory in Ward 1, Pathein Township.
Officials discovered that 16 of the company’s 65 foreign workers had returned from China separately between 1 to 4 February. All of them were found to be healthy.
Officials informed them of the current situation of 2019-nCoV, urged them to contact the health department if suspected symptoms manifest, and are continuing to monitor them.
(b) On 5 February, news circulated that a Chinese citizen suddenly became ill and passed away at a mining company in Salingyi Township. Officials from Sagaing Region Public Health Department and Salingyi Township went to investigate.
They found the company had 101 workers and family members and that there had been no sudden deaths from illness. Officials found no signs of sickness or the virus in any of the people there. There had also been no one who had gone to China in the past 14 days.
Officials also inspected four other mining companies in the township and found the staff and their families there all healthy. Active monitoring is being continued.
(c) On 6 February, the (Central) Contagious Disease Prevention and Eradication Division received a call on hotline 067-3420802 about 7 Chinese workers in a textile factory of Shwepyitha Township’s Hlawga Wah Tayar Industrial Zone. The phone call said all 7 workers had returned to Myanmar on 2 February after visiting China for New Year’s, and that 3 of them had became ill. The department contacted the Yangon Region Public Health and Medical Services Department to verify the claim.
Officials of Shwepyitha Public Health Department went to investigate and found the 7 Chinese workers to be healthy. They are being actively monitored.
- As of yesterday morning, MoHS has been actively monitoring 7 patients, including 2 suspected patients, in their respective hospitals. Their health has been improving.
(3) Members of the public are urged to notify the nearest health department, public health department or the (Central) Contagious Disease Prevention and Eradication Division in Nay Pyi Taw (Hotline- 067-3420802) if they see anyone who has returned from China in the last 14 days who have developed high fevers, coughs, runny noses or other suspected symptoms.
(4) MoHS actively updates news and information on MRTV, www.mohs.gov.mm, and the Facebook pages of MRTV, MoHS, and Myanmar CDC.—MNA (Translated by Zaw Htet Oo)
