Residents panic as state govt. quarantines three Chinese in Plateau over Coronavirus

There appeared to be panic by residents of Plateau State after the state government took proactive action to quarantine three Chinese in Wase town for suspected case of coronavirus infection to guard against outbreak and spread in the state,

The Commissioner for Information in Plateau, Dan Manjang, had on Saturday, acknowledged that the three Chinese are workers in a mining site in Wase; saying that flew into Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory on Wednesday and the state government had to swing into action immediately to track them.

The commissioner had narrated: “The situation right now is that they have been isolated.

“The three of them came in through Abuja and once we heard that, the Commissioner for Health had to take a proactive measure to send a medical team to Wase to go and investigate.”

The Information Commissioner narrated that the Chinese entered Jos, Plateau State, on Thursday; and were clinically examined by a medical expert deployed by the State Ministry of Health.

The Information Commissioner, however, noted that there is presently no confirmed case of coronavirus in Plateau State. He expressed concerns that the word ‘quarantine’ could be misunderstood by the people and therefore, cause panic in the state. The commissioner urged the people to go about their normal businesses and remain calm, saying that the case is still under investigation.

“The problem that we have is that there is a tendency for people to think that investigation or quarantine, as the case may be, means that there is an outbreak of the virus.

“As far as Plateau case is concerned, there has been no known case of this virus on the Plateau; we just took proactive measures to make sure that we place them (the Chinese nationals) under investigation and that will take 14 days,” the commissioner explained.