Coronavirus: We can’t evacuate Ugandans from China, it’s risky – Uganda ambassador to China, Dr Kiyonga
Following the recent outbreak of the coronavirus, Uganda has confirmed that they will not be considering evacuating their locals from China because it might result in spreading the disease even further.
Coronavirus in China was reported a few weeks back after many sudden deaths mainly in Wuhan city. The virus has no cure or vaccine and is currently being treated using supportive measures.
Because of the Coronavirus outbreak, many countries including Germany, USA among others developed measures among others to try and help their citizens out of China.
Meanwhile, Uganda Government earlier last week also announced the establishment of an inter-ministerial committee to prevent and manage coronavirus.
The committee chaired by the health minister Dr Jane Aceng was expected to present a paper to the Cabinet earlier this week concerning what the country is planning to do with its citizens in China.
However, now reports indicate that Uganda is not any close to ensuring the evacuation of its citizens from the Asian based country.
According to Dr Crispus Kiyonga, ambassador of Uganda to China evacuation requires a lot of preparations and expenses and in the end, it might result in negative implications like spreading the virus.
As a way of avoiding the spread, Kiyonga says that the country has accepted to deny any travels to and from China at the moment until the situation is curbed.
Evacuating Ugandans from China now requires a lot of preparations and has grave implications. There are no flights to Wuhan now. If you evacuate 100 people, you may have to isolate them in a whole village.
“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 visit Wuhan because there is no reason for them going there,” Kiyonga implied.
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Earlier it was reported that there are about 70 Ugandan students in the affected area alone and about 400 across China on private and Chinese government scholarships.
But Kiyonga is first to assure the country that the Chinese government is taking full control to ensure the population is safe with most of the students demanded in schools and universities.
“We have been assured by the Chinese government that measures have been put in place to contain the outbreak and that all Ugandans in China are safe. It is better to keep students in the universities as the government contains the outbreak instead of putting them on a plane and s
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He further added that although evacuation is good and something the country should have looked at doing but their first step is to comply with the travel advisory issued by China and monitor the implementation of the measures it has put in place to curtail the spread of the virus.
“The Chinese government has assured us that it is taking full control and proper care of the situation.
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“Any evacuation would have to be done with the coordination of the Chinese government and should be consistent with the reading of the situation by the government but still one effective way of controlling the virus is limiting the movement of people,” Kiyonga added.
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By John Dalton Kigozi
