COVID-19: 24 Persons Quarantined In Imo Hotel Over Fear Of Contact With Positive Case Freed

About 24 persons, quarantined in Fancy Hotel in Imo state, belonging to Chief Christogonus Osuagwu Aguwa, who reportedly died in Abuja following COVID-19 complications, have been let off the hook.

The trio who lodged in the hotel at the wake of the discovery that the owner of the hotel recently returned from USA, were caught on the web of the controversial surrounding if the hotelier died of coronavirus or not.

The 24 persons found in the hotel at the time including guest and staffers were lockdown by security operatives drafted in by the Imo state government around 1:am last Saturday for observation and test following the contact-tracing for the case of the hotelier.

The hotel is located at Umuguma in Owerri West council area of Imo state.

BIGPEN understands that the 24 quarantined in the hotel were released Saturday evening by officials of the state Ministry of Health.

They were given a clean bill of health by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) which said their result returned negative.

The 24 isolated cases have been in the hotel for 16 days after the index case left the hotel for Abuja and after visiting the occupants last week Thursday.

The health officials who confirmed the report anonymously, said the 24 were quarantined for close and careful observation and having satisfied themselves in accordance with global best practices that they are not infected and no threat to society, were allowed to go.

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“We earlier told them them that the quarantine may be lifted the next day pending clearance from the NCDC but the clearance eventually came Saturday afternoon and the quarantine was lifted”.

Meanwhile, some of the isolated cases, said they were starved during the period of the quarantine. They lamented that their relatives were the ones bring food from home for them whilst the state government had a committee to take care of isolation cases.

Efforts made to reach the Commissioner for Health, Dr. Mrs. Damaris Osunkwo, who is also a member of the Imo State Taskforce on COVID-19 proved abortive as she did not take her calls on the two occasions one of our correspondent tried to reach her.