Covid-19 suspects decry extended quarantine
Briefing. Health minister Ruth Aceng addressing the nation on April 2. The minster is incharge of enforcing the quarantine of suspected cases of Covid-19. PHOTO BY ABUBAKER LUBOWA
What you need to know:
- Stay longer. The people put under quarantine expected to leave the facility by Thursday last week were told to extend their stay after one of them was found positive.
People who have been quarantined at Acacia Boutique Hotel in Entebbe have cried out to the government after Ministry of Health slapped extra 14 days of quarantine to them.
Many of those quarantined had completed their confinement period on Thursday and were due for release the following morning. However, sources from the hotel say officials from the Ministry of Health who were supposed to visit and test them did not show up on Friday and Saturday.
On Sunday when they finally showed up, one of the people quarantined in the main hotel building tested positive and the entire group was put under further quarantine of 14 days at their own cost.
A source quarantined in one of the apartments, 50 metres away from the main hotel building, said it’s unfair to those who had been observing the strict rules. The source said while those in the apartment observed strict adherence, those in the main hotel building mixed freely and there is possibility of infecting each other.
The source, who said he has spent 18 days in confinement at the facility, is disappointed with Ministry of Health officials whom he accused of negligence.
However, the ministry spokesperson Mr Emmanuel Ainebyoona, insisted they were right to extend the quarantine.
“People have not been following the guidelines and if one person tests positive from such a centre, we add another 14 days of quarantine. We don’t have to analyse such situations like how far one group has been staying from one building to another,” he said.
On April 5, 2020, after being slapped with more days of quarantine, the residents who had been staying in a different apartment at the back end of the hotel wrote to the Ministry of Health to reconsider the extension of their quarantine.
The residents said the hotel is separated into three main blocks, distinct from one another with no common space, thus minimising possibility of transmission.
“In fact, the two blocks where we are quarantined are in a separate backyard at the rear of the hotel. These two rear blocks contain what are called studio apartments,” the aggrieved residents said in the letter.
According to them, their food has always been delivered and left outside the room and after eating, they also place the plates at their balconies from where the hotel staff pick them.
“These protocols can be verified by the staff, the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Forces) doctor attending to us daily on site and the MOH representative that came to address us,” the residents wrote.
FACTS
• 377 individuals discharged from institutional quarantine
• 1271 individuals tested so far
• 2661 travellers identified
• 602 under institutional quarantine
• 834 under follow up
• 141 people under self-quarantine
Other complications. Some of the people in the hotel are of advanced age, with some over 70 years old. One of the sources said they have other health complications for which they seek regular specialised treatment and confining them in the hotel exposes them to additional danger.
