DILI, 25 April 2020 (TATOLI) – Five Timorese Patients, who were isolated at Vera Cruz Health Centre, have returned home after testing negative to Covid-19.
The Integrated Crisis Management Centre spokesman Sergio Lobo said one of the five was positive to Covid-19, while the others were treated as “probable” carriers.
“They have been currently liberated from Covid-19 after a second test results shows all of them are negative to [the virus],” Mr Lobo told the journalists on Saturday.
The five patients – four males and one female – came from Viqueque, Dili and Manufahi Districts.
Some 24 people have tested positive to Covid-19 in Timor-Leste, with two of those having already recovered. However, no-one has died from the virus. Mr Lobo credited the patients’ recovery to “strong immune systems.”
One of the patients, who chose to remain anonymous, agreed with him.
“We are able to get through the situation because we have good immune systems, and we fight against the virus inside our body,” she told TATOLI.
On their way out of the clinic, the patients thanked the health professionals who looked after them during their stay at the isolation centre in Dili.
As of Sunday, 472 patients have been tested, 24 positive and another 81 people are awaiting test results.
Some 414 people are undergoing 14 days mandatory quarantine, either at home or at one of the government-run sites.
The virus has now infected almost three million people in the four and a half months since it was first identified in China. The pandemic has claimed more than 200,000 lives, while 822,105 have recovered.
Read the original Tetum: Timoroan Na’in-Lima Sai Ona Hosi Sala Izolamentu
Journalist: Tomé Amado
Editors: Robert Baird, Agapito dos Santos
Translation: Nelia Borges
