Health Minister Dr Fuad Khan says Government is not budging on its decision to quarantine all T&T nationals returning from Ebola-stricken regions of west Africa for a period of 21 days. And although he admitted they could not say just how many people this could affect, given that there were fears the virus could even spread in the United States, Khan said they would make the room at medical institutions across the country to ensure they could accommodate those people once they returned home.
“We will have to find space,” Khan told the T&T Guardian as he answered questions on whether the lone isolation unit at the Caura Hospital would be enough to undergo the quarantine exercise if there was an overwhelming response. Khan announced the quarantine on Thursday in tandem with a ban on entry to all travellers coming from west African regions, such as Nigeria, Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Yesterday, however, Khan said the Government may review the ban on Nigeria, which had been able to contain the virus, as more information cane to hand on the virus. He said the decision to ban Nigeria was taken by Cabinet. Asked why Nigeria was banned when it had successfully contained the Ebola spread, Khan said Nigeria was on the St Lucian watch list and T&T followed suit.
He agreed that many T&T nationals were employed in the Nigerian energy sector but could not give any figures. “This is being compiled by the Energy Ministry,” Khan said when asked whether adequate research had been done to ascertain how many nationals would be affected. Khan said the T&T Government would work closely with the World Health Organisation and the Pan American Health Organisation before making future decisions on altering the travel ban.
“The WHO has made some pronouncements on Nigeria, so we will be reviewing our decision,” Khan promised.
Nigeria safe — ambassador
Nigerian High Commissioner to T&T Musa John Jen says his country has been safe from Ebola infections for the past six weeks. He made the comment yesterday in response to Health Minister Fuad Khan’s decision to ban nationals of his country from entering T&T due to Ebola concerns. The WHO says Nigeria will be declared Ebola-free as long as no new cases are detected before Monday.
In a radio interview yesterday, John Jen, who will be returning to Nigeria this weekend after resigning from his post to contest a governorship in his country, said he would not have returned if Ebola was not under control. “I am heading to Nigeria with my family this weekend. If there is a threat, especially Ebola, I would be the last person to carry my family after six years and some months in Trinidad,” John Jen said.
He said there was now a system in Nigeria where contact details and other information was taken from travellers at every port of entry into the country. John Jen said during the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China in 2002, that country had put systems in place to track and control any spread of the virus. He suggested T&T should employ similar measures.
