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Dili, Feb 14 2021 (Lusa) – Surveillance teams are unfolding in the Bobonaro area, 112 kilometres southwest of Dili, in order to identify passengers travelling with a Timorese citizen who entered irregularly in the country and tested positive for covid-19.
′′ It’s a worrying situation and the urgency now is to identify the rest of the passengers who traveled with the boy who tested positive “, Lusa source of the Integrated Center for Crisis Management Situation (IGC), which is keeping up with the covid-19.
′′ This border situation is raising great concern and more controls need to be strengthened “, said the same source.
Concern over the border situation is one of the topics on the agenda of the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers convened for Monday afternoon, according to Lusa’s source of the executive.
This may be the possible deployment of additional staff of East Timor Defence Forces (FDTL) to support police in border patrolling and try to halt the irregular entrances of Timorese citizens into the country.
Concerns arise around a 20-year-old man who traveled underground on February 05 to Atambua, in the Indonesian half of the island of Timor, to see the family, returning to East Timor five days later.
On February 10, he rented an ‘Ojek’ – a motorcycle taxi – which transported him from the Indonesian side to the village of Maliana where he subsequently traveled in public transport (angguna) with 11 more people: the driver and 10 passengers.
Most passengers left in the juice area of Lourbá, about seven kilometers from Bobonaro, with the positive passenger and four others continued journey to Bobonaro, one of the municipalities that border Indonesia.
′′ The community of the area, where the man had no family, informed the municipality’s security authorities and surveillance teams, which immediately began an investigation “, one of the coordinators of the commission responsible for combating covid-19 explained today. , Nilton of Carmo da Silva
The man, the driver (…) and his helper were taken to quarantine in Batugadé where they were tested, testing confirmed their positive result on Saturday.
′′ The follow-up teams are trying to identify the remaining passengers (…), and who are still being searched “, detailed to the journalists.
In a message on his personal page on the social network Facebook – former Prime Minister and former Health Minister Rui Araújo and current coordinator of the task force for the Prevention and Mitigation of covid-19 of the Situation Room, said that the case of Lourbá indicates that there may be local transmission in East Timor.
′′ Successful votes for colleagues from the epidemiological surveillance of the Municipality of Bobonaro and the Bobonaro Health Centre, who continue to look for those who traveled in the angguna on February 11 between Maliana and Bobonardo, among whom a citizen who tested positive “, wrote.
This is the second recent scare after a woman irregularly entered and made it to Dili, where her family informed authorities that after quarantining her they carried out a positive test.
Surveillance teams have screened contacts and no other positive cases have been detected.
East Timor currently has 40 active cases of covid-19, 39 of which are isolated in Vera Cruz, Dili – space with maximum capacity of 50 people -, and one in the enclave of Oecusse Ambeno.
Since the start of the pandemic, the country has recorded a total of 102 cases.
ASP // EA
Lusa / End
