by Peter Orengo
A group of Chinese visitors arriving in Kenya sent some residents in Nairobi into panic over the CoronaVirus.
This development happened in an area called Athi River, some 30 kilometres southeast of Kenya’s capital Nairobi.
Passengers, mostly Chinese, landed in Nairobi on Wednesday and quarantined themselves in the town.
By evening the same same day, Machakos public health officials were called in to calm nerves at the town’s Sidai estate after one of the passengers sought to isolate himself there.
Mr Qi Xiao Li, 35, who travelled from China’s Anhui Province, had struck a deal with a colleague who lives in the estate to help him stay in isolation for 14 days as ordered by Kenya’s Health ministry and the Chinese embassy in Nairobi.
“He is said to have been brought to the estate from the (Jomo Kenyatta International) Airport by an Uber taxi wearing a face mask and ushered in by his colleagues — all in masks,” said Mr Lucas Mwove, the chief officer, Public Health Machakos County.
“The occupier of house No 312 moved to stay in his place of work at Athi River Business Park to create room for quarantining the visitor.”
But there was a problem: other tenants got wind of the plan and were not ready to roll out the welcome mat for the man who works in one of the industrial parks in Athi River.
Reports suggest one case of the Coronavirus is being recorded in Nigeria from a visitor who was in Italy. Italy is the first European country to be hard hit by the virus.