Whereas Uganda has not registered any case of Coronavirus, there is a possible outbreak of this pandemic at a quarantine hotel- Central Inn in Entebbe.
The occupants of this facility mostly foreigners were taken to there on Ministry of Health guidelines to spend mandatory 14 days to prevent the spread of the virus.
But what worries these individuals is the laxity in security as the hotel is accessed by everyone and there are no check ups carried out by health officials to establish who is sick or not.
Maike Ruchogoza, a German national arrived in the country four days ago. She is married to a Ugandan man and she had come with her two children for a vacation at their home in Jinja.
She has two sons aged 3 and 8 months. Her husband however, stayed in Germany.
She is among those foreigners isolated at Central Inn but wonders whether she is in quarantine as there is free movement.
Her fear however, is the irresponsibility authorities are expressing by ‘dumping’ more foreigners at the hotel who are not checked of the virus.
These people have not accessed any medical service for 4 days.
Below is her Ordeal
We arrived at the airport in Entebbe at 16.03.2020 at 10.30pm with the airline KLM (Flight number KL539).
When we came out we had to fill out a form with questions like where we are from, to which countries we traveled in the last 14 days, if we have any symptoms (like cough, headache, fever.), if we were together with people who had Corona or Ebola.
After this we had to wait in a line and they measured our temperature and they gave us the information letter for the self quarantine. All the people were fine, but we still had to wait.
After some time, a man came and told us that the rules had changed and we can’t do the self quarantine anymore. We have two option. Number one we wait at the airport and we go back straight away to our countries.
Number two they being us with the bus to a place and everyone gets own room and we have to stay inside for two weeks. People were crying and shouting, because before we entered in the airplane they still told us we can do the self quarantine and everyone was ready for that.
Some people stayed at the airport and the others had to go to the bus. They took us to the Hotel Central Inn Entebbe. When we reached there they told us one room is 100 Dollar per day and we have to pay by ourselves. People refused to check in and we got different information.
Someone said that the government will pay for that and then the following day the minister of health will come to sort out the issues with us (She didn’t come). And other one promised us that the government will pay for the room for the whole two weeks.
The point what makes me so mad is, that you can’t just change the rules when the airplane has already started and you don’t have a chance to decide that with those conditions of entering Uganda that you don’t want to fly anymore.
They had to tell us before. Every country in Europe did it like that.
Of course I wouldn’t have come with my two babies when I knew that those conditions and I can’t do the self quarantine!!!!
So after arriving at the hotel I realized that its not really a quarantine. If someone is caring that Coronavirus, we will be all sick soon. They allowed us to move around. We are eating all together at the restaurant people are entering the hotel and after they go outside and meet other people.
The people who are working here they don’t know anything about that Corona Virus. That virus is moving so fast and you can get it so easily. They don’t put on always the masks and they touch everything. When they are done working the workers are going home to their families and then they come back to work. That’s how you spray that virus around.
They don’t follow the rules for a quarantine at all. It would be much safer when we do the self quarantine and maybe they put a policeman in front of the house to make sure that I don’t move around. (It would be even much cheaper than 100 Dollar per day!!!!!) because I can’t pay for that
I don’t feel safe with my kids at all. Maybe for me I can try to take care that i don’t touch people and I don’t touch other things. I can also try to protect myself. But my kids they can’t do it!!!
So that kind of quarantine they do here is the best way to spray the Corona virus out.
They bring more and more people to the hotel. Yesterday the brought a bus full of people from china (a high risk country!!!!) and they wanted to mix those people with us. We were all complaining and I think after some hours they took those people to an other place.
I’m so worried that we will fall sick from here. We arrived when we were totally healthy and then they put us all together with people from other countries and we didn’t have the chance to do the self quarantine.
Up to now they have the information of the self quarantine on the official websites. Museveni just talked yesterday that they changed it and they put you to the quarantine for 100 Dollar per day. But when we arrived we couldn’t find anything about it.
They come to clean our room, but before they use the same things to clean the rooms of the other people. So they really do the best to put the virus everywhere.
At the 17th March was a meeting in the hotel. People for the Ministry of Agriculture. So people entered the hotel for the meeting and after they went back home. At this time, we were already in the hotel and we moved around!!!! So if someone of us has the virus those people can also have it now!
In the beginning people had visitors here. Even my driver was allowed to enter when we arrived. I talked to him, but they didn’t allow us to go with him home.
So they didn’t take care at all if we were in contact with other people. All they were minding a bout was us to stay in the hotel.
Here was a 15 years old girl alone. Her dad came and after some time she was allowed to go home.
But they don’t allow me to leave with the two young kids!! So how safe can I be?
