Originally posted by the Voice of America.
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Haiti's First Suspected Coronavirus Case Tests Negative

Sandra Lemaire

   WASHINGTON / PORT-AU-PRINCE - Haiti's first suspected coronavirus case
   has tested negative, the country's new prime minister says.

   Joseph Jouthe held a news conference Friday at his official residence
   along with the director general of the Ministry of Public Health, Dr.
   Laure Adrien, to try to calm citizens anxious about the country's
   potential first case of the deadly infection.

   The health official described the tested patient as a female foreigner
   who had returned to Haiti after traveling to her native country, where
   coronavirus has spread. The woman was experiencing symptoms, which
   prompted concern and led to tests administered at the national
   laboratory in Port-au-Prince. The tests came back negative, officials
   said. No further details about the patient were given.

   Cause for concern

   The prime minister also addressed a case that sparked rumors and fear
   among residents of the capital, regarding a group of 16 people who
   arrived in Haiti on Wednesday by bus from the Dominican Republic.
   Minister of Public Health Marie Greta Roy Clement told VOA that the
   neighboring country had nine confirmed cases of the virus.

   Haitian officials quarantined the bus passengers Wednesday in the
   neighborhood of Tabarre, after one bus passenger died before crossing
   the border into Haiti. Prior the death, officials said, the person
   exhibited coronavirus-like symptoms such as fever and coughing. The
   remaining passengers were tested for the virus, and results of those
   lab test results were still pending.

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