With the spike in the number of deaths among Filipinos in Dubai–from 17 around the first week of May to 48 by May 21–a Dubai Police officer bared the top reasons why many of the succumbed to the novel coronavirus.
“The information that I got about it is the close community that we have here in Dubai. Satwa and other areas like Muteena are very, very high (in terms of Filipino population). So, in those areas, people living there have chances to live (together) like sharing. That is why (Covid-19) is very, very fast spreading,” Lt. Khalid Mohammed B. Banasser, Dubai Police spokesperson, told dailybread.news.blog.
One more factor why there is a surge in Covid-19 deaths among Filipinos in Dubai recently is the fact that in most cases they are only rushed to the hospital when it is already ‘very late.’
“The second thing is that some of the cases came to the hospital very late,” he added.
Banasser recalled that one of the cases he handled in the past few days was a 46-year-old patient who was ‘very, very sick.’
“She said she thought it was just maybe a cold or a fever ‘and I tried to fix it myself’. But she couldn’t that’s why she came to the hospital. This is another problem. They only come (seek medical help) after they have reached the last stage. That’s very dangerous,” he told the dailybread.news.blog.
Banasser added that one feels anything, ‘don’t solve it by yourself.’ He recommends Filipinos to ask for help instead.
“There is big community here in Dubai of Filipinos and it’s very crowded. And if they go very careless, they will fall. This is the problem, when they fall, they will fall like 10 to 20 (speaking in terms of casualty counts,” he said.