Tamale Residents Demand for Evacuation of Quarantined Covid-19 Patients in Hotels

Some residents sharing a wall with the hotel where the eight Guinean covid-19 patients are being quarantined in Tamale have called for their immediate evacuation to avoid exposing others in the area to the disease.

The residents want these covid-19 patients evacuated to an infectious disease treatment centre established at the Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH).

According the residents, it has been three weeks since the eight Guinean ladies were quarantined in the hotel, situated in the residential area, thereby putting the lives of those living close to the hotel at risk.

They also complained to the Daily Graphic of being stigmatised as a result of their proximity to the hotel hosting them.

Hajia Fati Alhassan, who said she share a wall with the hotel where the Guinean COVID-19 patients are being quarantined claimed they cannot moved freely in the area and their other relatives and friends have stopped visiting them.

"I am leaving here with my grandchildren and these children cannot go out in the compound to play because of the presence of these COVID-19 patients in the hotel I share a wall with," she stated.

"We are also being stigmatised by other residents and recently one of my grandchildren who went to buy porridge was asked by the porridge seller not to come closer to her because his house was nearer to where the COVID-19 Guinean patients are being quarantined and therefore might infect her with virus," she said.

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Awudu Nashirudeen, who also share a wall with the hotel also expressed concerns about the continued presence of the Guineans in the hotel since they have been kept there for about three weeks now.

"Nobody is telling us anything and those of us who lived closer to the hotel are scared and cannot move freely," he said.

"Our appeal to the authorities including the Northern Regional Minister and the Tamale Metropolitan Chief Executive is to evacuate them from the hotel as they have exceeded the 14 days mandatory quarantine to the treatment centre at the TTH," he stated

Eight Guineans and two Burkinabes who arrived in Tamale on March 24,2020 tested positive for the COVID-19 and are being quarantined in a hotel in Tamale. However one of them escaped from the hotel but was later arrested in Accra.