Trouble Looms As 14 Escape From Coronavirus Quarantine Centre

Coronavirus has taken a new twist with at least 14 people escaping from Coronavirus quarantine centre.

NewsOne Nigeria reports that Gambian authorities were on Friday searching for 14 people who broke out of a hotel where they had been quarantined as a coronavirus precaution and escaped, health officials, said.

This burgeoning online news platform understands that the 14 people were among 32 passengers who arrived on a flight from the United Kingdom on Wednesday and placed in quarantine in the hotel located in the capital Banjul.

Health Minister Ahmadou Lamin Samateh in a statement broadcast on Thursday said that some quarantined passengers “apparently became aggressive,” broke down the hotel gates and ran away.

The Gambian Health Minister added that the incident was “very, very detrimental” and created “risk for the entire nation”.

Newsone Nigeria reports that the Gambia, a tiny West African state recorded its first coronavirus case on Tuesday, in a young woman who also flew into the country from the United Kingdom.

President Adama Barrow had on the same day announced measures to contain the deadly Covid-19, such as closing schools and placing arrivals from the affected country in quarantine.

Underscoring the difficulty of enforcing the rules, a health ministry director, Modou Njie, said that many passengers on Wednesday were uncooperative from the outset and squabbled about boarding the bus to the hotel.

The health ministry director added that 14 people in total later fled quarantine. “We are looking for them. We are trying to ascertain the nationalities of those who escaped,” Njie told AFP.

In a related development, Coronavirus in Nigeria has taken a new twist, with the Federal Government declaring it will shut down the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos; and Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport, Abuja from Monday, March 23, to contain the coronavirus pandemic.