National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) announced that it was currently looking into reports that Chile's first confirmed COVID-19 patient had been in Maldives last month.
Chile announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Wednesday. According to foreign media reports, the patient is a 33-year-old man from the city of Talca, who returned to his home country after extensive travels through Asia, per the Chilean Institute of Public Health (ISP).
The head of Talca Hospital, Alfredo Donoso, revealed that the patient had been travelling for nearly a month, passing through Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Maldives, before returning to Chile via Spain.
"He returned February 25 and on March 1 began to have respiratory symptoms", Donoso was quoted as saying.
NDMA announced on its official Twitter page that the authority was aware of the reports and is presently working with the Chilean health authorities, along with national and international stakeholders, to obtain details of the patient's travel history.
We are currently in contact with Chilean health authorities and a working with international and national stakeholder agencies to cross check and confirm individual's details and travel history.
— NDMA Maldives (@NDMAmv) March 4, 2020
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health assured earlier the same day that there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Maldives to date.
The state has made arrangements to test suspected cases of the novel coronavirus in the country, as well as established an emergency operations centre over the global pandemic.
Other precautionary measures implemented to prevent an outbreak include increasing border control, halting all flights from China, and banning entry to all cruise-liners and to entities arriving from China, Iran and two regions of South Korea.
COVID-19, which originated from Wuhan City in Hubei Province, China, has infected over 93,100 and claimed over 3,200 lives across the world.
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