By Momdou Justice Darboe
Sources at the Ministry of Health Monday confirmed that some of the people who escaped from a quarantine centre one week ago are surrendering themselves for isolation.
Our sources could not however confirm how many have so far surrendered themselves to the authorities.
“As of now, I couldn’t give you a cumulative number of people who reported back for quarantine but a number of them have surrendered themselves,” the director of health promotion at the ministry of health told The Standard Monday afternoon.
According to Momodou Njai, the escapees still refusing to hand themselves over for quarantine raise a high tendency of endangering public health for which they could be prosecuted.
“Some people are harboring them but we want to appeal to the general public to desist from this as it can pose a public health hazard,” he added.
He said the authorities were intensifying their search for those who haven’t surrendered themselves yet and promised to give details later today in the ministry of health’s regular COVID-19 update.
The 14 escapees were among 32 passengers who arrived on a flight from the UK last Wednesday and according to health minister Ahmadou Lamin Samateh, some of the quarantined passengers became ‘aggressive’ and broke down the gate of the hotel where they were being held before effecting their escape.
“The incident was very, very detrimental and created a risk,” he lamented.
