Yemeni who fainted did not have corona-virus: Ministry

A Yemeni man falls down at departure terminal. Facebook

The Health Ministry yesterday rejected as fake news, social media posts that claimed a Yemeni man fainted at Phnom Penh International Airport due to contracting Novel Corona-virus.

Health Ministry spokesman Ly Sovann said that at about  9am yesterday, the Yemeni national fainted at the airport departure terminal and some social media users immediately used pictures of him to falsely report that the fainting was due to the virus.

He said medical checks showed that the man did not have a fever or any other symptom related to the potentially fatal respiratory illness.

“The Yemeni national was suffering from oxygen deficiency and fainted and we [the medical team] gave him oxygen,” Mr Sovann explained. “He later recovered fully at the Calmette Hospital and returned to the airport. He definitely did not have the deadly virus.”

State Secretariat of Civil Aviation spokesman Sin Chan Sereyvutha yesterday identified the Yemeni national as Ebrahim Mahram Ali Abdo, 32.

He said Mr Ebrahim Mahram planned to leave Cambodia on a Malaysian airline flight but collapsed at the airport because he was suffering from exhaustion.

“We sent him to Calmette Hospital for treatment and the doctors confirmed he had no health problems,” Mr Chan Sereyvutha said. “He later asked the doctors to let him leave the hospital and we don’t know when he will go back to his own country,” he added.