Uganda ambassador to Asia, Dr. Crispus Kiyonga, has confirmed that Ugandan students totaling to 70 are stranded in the Corona Virus affected area of Wuhan in China.
About 400 other Ugandan students are scattered across China on private and Chinese government scholarships.
However, the Ugandan government has no plans of evacuating these students or any other Ugandan. They are therefore left to pray and hope that the virus will disappear miraculously the next day.
25 year-old Thomas Kanzira, one of the stranded Ugandan students in China narrated his ordeal to the Aljazeera reporters on February 5, 2020.
“You wake up every morning and realise you are trapped, You keep checking your temperature – you can’t help but wonder if you are infected but just have not started showing symptoms,
“We first heard that the Americans were evacuating their citizens, then other countries followed suit – you watch your colleagues be evacuated and you feel helpless and abandoned” Kanzira Decried.
Kiyonga however said that the pending restrictions on movements in and outside China and the already quarantined Wuhan can not favour evacuation of any citizen.
“Just like we have advised the Chinese in Uganda not to go to China and the Chinese in China not to come to Uganda, even our embassy officials are not allowed to go to Wuhan.There is even no reason to do that. What will they do even if they can go there?”
Earlier this week, Yangtze University announced that a male Cameroonian student had been infected with the virus, making the 21-year-old the first African to be diagnosed with the illness.(Aljazeera, February 5, 2020)
China reports show that 73 people died of the virus and over 3,143 new infections, most of which are from Hubei province.
According to Daily Monitor reports, Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng revealed that 100 including 56 Ugandans and 44 Chinese who arrived in Uganda from China have been placed in a quarantine.
“Those without visible symptoms will be isolated and quarantined in their houses after sensitization. Even without symptoms, infected persons may be infectious but this is in rare cases. They will be followed up by our surveillance officers for 14 days,” Aceng said.
