A Rakhine man who tested positive for Covid-19 was filmed on May 19 travelling to hospital by river after local authorities reportedly blocked him from taking the road.
Marked by the health ministry as case 190, the 25-year-old man from Taunggok township was wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) as he steered the small boat with an oar. His father towed him in the boat ahead.
The man is one of 11 migrant workers recently returned from Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates who tested positive for the virus, according to the health ministry.
He returned from Malaysia on May 11 and became Rakhine’s second confirmed coronavirus case—the first, a 35-year-old man who had also recently returned from Malaysia, tested positive the previous day and was taken to Thandwe General Hospital.
Case 190 entered Rakhine state on May 13 after taking a bus from Yangon. He stayed at a quarantine centre near his village, reported 7Day News, and yesterday arrived at the 100-bed Taunggok Hospital, where doctor Kyaw Bo Win sounded the alarm over a lack of equipment and staff.
The hospital has only eight doctors who are all busy attending to their wards, he wrote in a Facebook post yesterday, and the site does not have an intensive care unit or a ventilator.
“The patient must be transferred to Waibargyi Hospital [in Yangon] or Phaung Gyi Hospital [both in Yangon region],” responded one Facebook user.
Myanmar has so far recorded 193 cases—the majority in Yangon—six deaths, and 104 recoveries.
