A Chinese male national who recently returned from China and checked into White Castle hotel in Arua in northern Uganda has been picked up by authorities and taken into quarantine. It is not yet immediately clear where the foreign national is now currently being quarantined.
The Chinese national, whose identity has been withheld, works with Chinese International Construction Company (CICO) and checked into the hotel on Tuesday this week upon return from China. He was reportedly self-quarantining but the hotel management contacted the health and security authorities, raising concern that he was causing a lot of panic and anxiety among other guests.
Ministry of health Dr Ruth Aceng issued travel restrictions and guidelines for travellers from 16 'high-risk' countries. These include Italy, Iran, South Korea, France, China, Germany, Spain, San Marino, Belgium, USA, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Australia and Malaysia. She advised travellers from these countries, to desist from coming to Uganda for non-essential visit, but if they insist they will be subjected to a mandatory 14-day self-quarantine.
According to available information shortly after his arrival into the country from China where he had travelled for his annual leave, the Chinese national called up the company driver to pick him up from Entebbe international airport.
When the Chinese national arrived at their company offices in Euata village in Arua, his colleagues kept a distance and asked him to find someplace where he could isolate himself fearing that he could be infected with the coronavirus that has killed more than 4,000 people worldwide, majority of them in China and infected nearly 120,000 others.
He asked the company driver to take him to a hotel in Arua town where he checked in a self-contained room by some workers who didn’t know that he had just returned from China. The workers only discovered that their Chinese guest was in isolation when his colleagues sent him food and protective gear.
This prompted the hotel workers to alert security, who in turn alerted the district health officer to assess the situation. Dr Paul Bishop Drileba, the Arua district health officer, who led a team of health officers to the room of the Chinese national confirmed that the Chinese national was in self-quarantine.
Dr Drileba said they have asked the Chinese national to keep in his room 14 days, saying they will assess his health status again to clear him.
"His colleagues notified us that he would be coming on [March] 8th, so we have been aware of his coming and yesterday [Tuesday] we were informed that he was now en route. He passed through Entebbe checkpoint…We got this information that this guy was very dangerous to the community and we talked to him, we met him physically, we talked to him, we checked his documents of the way he’s travelled. We also assessed him and we think he’s not any risk for now but we'll continue to monitor him until March 24 and say he can freely mix with the community." Drileba said.
Arua deputy resident district commissioner, Alice Akello, says the Chinese national was moved to another place due to pressure from the hotel.
"The man [owner] feared that his hotel was going to be [deserted], the man has been taken fellow Chinese and we’re following where he was taken otherwise he’s putting us in trouble…You know this thing can scare," said Akello.