Quarantine: What’s the bigger picture?

Mirirai Nsingo

UPON arrival in Harare from the United Kingdom, David (not real name), who is a cruise ship worker, had to put up with a different lifestyle due to dictates of the coronavirus that has wreaked havoc worldwide.

David and some in his group said their quarantine centre, Belvedere Technical Teachers’ College, was devoid of “basic necessities”.

True, the college’s facilities are not exactly the type that would charm a cruise ship worker and other such people of “expensive taste and lifestyles”. The outcry from the group of 26 attracted mixed reactions — some dismissed them as a mere “false smoke alarm” while others shed a tear.

But issues surrounding this coronavirus quarantine are much bigger than three-course meals, shared bathrooms and toilets.

Zimbabwe currently has thousands of returning residents confined in various institutions from Beitbridge, Bulawayo, Plumtree, Harare and Darwendale.

Thousands more are expected soon and Government is now planning to send returning residents to their respective provinces soon after screening them at ports of entry.

“We don’t intend to punish returnees but we are following WHO (World Health Organisation) guidelines of mandatory quarantines,” said Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Permanent Secretary Simon Masanga.

Of the 26 people that were isolated, two tested positive by Wednesday, raising issues to do with what would have happened had those two gone back to their families. How many people would they have infected had Government not instituted the mandatory quarantine?

But David insists he was not crying for the luxuries he left behind when his cruise ship docked.

“Government had promised that they were ready to receive us. We never at any point demanded posh accommodation,” he said.

“We only asked for basic accommodation with proper sanitation. (We had) fear of being infected as we had people who really looked sick.”

David is one of many overseas contract workers caught in the Covid-19 crossfire. Cruise ships across the world had to go through mandatory quarantine and testing before they could reach a port.

The last cruise ship, Costa Deliziosa, only reached port in Genoa a few days ago. This Belvedere quarantine, in many ways, could be “season two” for many of the overseas contract workers, making their cries of frustration understandable, yet WHO and public health guidelines dealing with Covid-19 have to be followed.

Health and Child Care Minister Dr Obadiah Moyo said they cannot afford to “take any chances”.

“We will continue placing every returning citizen on mandatory quarantine as a way of controlling infection. We already have two of the Britain returnees housed at Belvedere testing positive,” Dr Moyo said.

Harare City Health Director Dr Prosper Chonzi told The Sunday Mail they cannot afford to compromise on people with a travelling history.

Zimbabwe Medical Association (ZIMA) secretary-general Dr Sacrifice Chirisa is equally concerned.

“We also received disturbing reports that some returnees were making calls so that they can be removed from quarantine or some even refusing to be quarantined. This should not be allowed. Every returning citizen should be placed in quarantine if we are to win this war.”

This comes against the background that global health body WHO has recommended mandatory quarantine for all returning residents.

WHO director-general Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus also advises countries to ensure that before lifting lockdown measures Covid-19 is “controlled, with health systems having capacity to detect, test, isolate and treat every case and trace every contact of those infected”.

Secretary for Health and Child Care Dr Agnes Mahomva told this publication they have been following guidelines despite limitations.

“We have set a mammoth task to test 1 000 per day. We know this is huge but has to be done. We have also widened our case definition for testing and this should give us the numbers we want,” she says.

The Belvedere story, which occupied a lot of media space in the past week, is an example of how social media can exert pressure based on mere speculation.

This month, The Guardian (UK) could not have put it better when it screamed, “Coronavirus: A disease that thrives on human error”.

“In the small southern Italian town of San Marco in Lamis, a man who died before it was known that he was carrying the virus, infected his wife and daughter, who then came into contact with dozens of relatives and friends at his funeral — 70 of whom are now in quarantine,” wrote the newspaper.

Zimbabwe imposed a 21-day lockdown which started on March 30 and will now expire on May 3 after a two-week extention. The first cases that were recorded in Zimbabwe were all imported.

Government and health professionals are seeing the big picture; so why is everyone else not as foresighted?