Díli, January 30th, 2020: His Excellency, the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, held the weekly meeting with the President of the Republic, Dr. Francisco Guterres Lú Olo, this Thursday, in the Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace, in Dili, having, at this occasion, informed about the Government’s preparations related to coronavirus, which the scientists called 2019-nCoV, which is now spreading to several countries. The coronavirus appeared last year in the Wuhan City of Hubei Province, in China.

 “This is the weekly meeting with His Excellency the President of the Republic. Today, I came mainly to inform about the preparations which our Government is establishing regarding the coronavirus situation. We have Timorese scholarship holders staying in critical areas (Wuhan City of the Hubei province), and we are figuring out possibilities to move them to the city of Beijing, and we are also making preparations within the country, so that, in any case, is detected, we could minimize his effects”, said the Head of Government to the press, after finishing the weekly meeting with the Head of State.  

The government, through the Council of Ministers, on January 29^th, has approved a Government Resolution which defines a set of measures to prevent and control the coronavirus outbreak in Timor-Leste. This Government Resolution enables a fund of US$1.5 millions, to support expenditure on the acquisition of equipment and clothing, as well as the provision of a specific physical space for the diagnosis of possible clinical cases, for the prevention and control of the propagation of coronavirus in the national territory, as well as to support the expenses with the withdrawal of Timorese citizens (scholarship holders) residing in the critical areas of Wuhan City, of Hubei province, with their travel to the cities of Beijing and Shanghai.

At the moment, the Government, through the Ministry of Health and other relevant institutions, are making every efforts to control the movement of foreign citizens, especially Chinese citizens, at vital points of entry into Timor-Leste, namely at the Airport and at the Integrated Posts at the borderlines, in order to anticipate and prevent the spread of coronavirus to Timor-Leste. END