Coronavirus: Panic as sickly looking Chinese citizen ‘scares’ residents
There was panic in a Naivasha after a sickly looking foreigner was spotted in one of the hotels around Lake Naivasha.
Residents fled from the hotel near Kamere estate as the Chinese national sought food from the eatery that is popular with the foreigners.
More drama was to unfold after the officers arrived in the hotel only to find that the foreigner had also left and the owners of the facility did not have his details.
Following the move, the department of health in Nakuru County activated its disease surveillance team with the training set for the end of this week.
According to the Chief Officer in charge of public health in Nakuru Samuel King’ori, they were not taking chances since the outbreak was reported in China.
King’ori expressed his concern that hoteliers were not keeping records indicating the origin of their visitors making it hard to monitor their health status.
“Our officers had been informed of an ailing foreigner but on arriving in the hotel he had already left and no one had is personal details,” he said.
King’ori said that the county would become the first to train its workers in disease surveillance in the country as one way of preparedness.
“We shall conduct a three-day training workshop for selected health workers in the country in the wake of the outbreak in China,” he said.
A witness Joel Wahome said that since the outbreak of the Coronavirus that has claimed hundreds in China, area residents had been wary of visitors.
He said that there were tens of Chinese nationals working in various projects in the area including geothermal drilling and SGR.
“The foreigner was definitely sick and due to fear of the coronavirus people fled from the hotel before he also left,” he said.
And in Suswa, residents have called on the Ministry of Health to investigate the behavior of some Chinese working on the SGR.
A resident James Ole Oluturi alleged that some ailing Chinese foreigners had been locked in one of the rooms in their camping site for the last couple of weeks.
“We have spotted around three sick Chinese nationals locked in one of the rooms in section six and we are asking the necessary government to investigate this incident,” he said.
