Upenyu Chaota
MUTARE
– Some 10 returnees quarantined
at Magamba Training Centre on Thursday slept in the open for fear of
contracting Covid-19 after authotities mixed new returnes with those that had
been there for long.
The returnees chose to sleep in the open because they did not want to be
mixed with new arrivals whom they feared were potential coronavirus sources.
The returnees who spoke to TellZim News said it was only
logical for authorities to release everybody at once as they were failing to
properly manage the facility.
Some said they had been detained there for over 28 days
and were offended that new arrivals were getting admitted into the same hostels
as everybody else.
Farai Makuyana who is one the returnees quarantined at
Magamba Training Centre said he felt that the centre had become a new site of
possible new coronavirus infections.
“We are living like prisoners because yesterday, we
slept outside the hostels for fear of being exposed to possible infection from
new arrivals. There are no sanitisers and we are sharing same bathrooms and
toilets with the new returnees whose samples have not yet been taken for
testing.
“We came here on July 10 and we have spent more than
28 days without being given our results yet two PCR testing exercises were
conducted. Dr Cephas Fonte came on Tuesday with results for nine returnees and
promised to return the following day with the other results but he never came
back and is not picking his calls,” said Makuyana.
“We want to be discharged and they must follow World
Health Organisation guidelines. We had two weeks without water, no good food,
toiletries and sanitisers,” he said.
Last weekend, some returnes staged a hunger strike which
forced authorities to partialy respond to their concerns.
A returnee who spoke on condition of anonymity said he
was happy to reunite with his family after being discharged from the quarantine
centre on August 04.
“I am happy to be at home with my family after a
long struggle at Magamba where I had very bad experiences. They made fake
promises that we they will give us enough food, sanitisers and running water.
“When we got there, we could not even have proper
baths because there was no water for over two weeks and we then staged a hunger
strike. That is when they started to provide water and sanitisers,” he
said.
Another ex-inmate desctibe the quarantine centre as a prison.
“We were 19 and only nine of us were discharged on
Tuesday. The other 10 who were part of our group are still at the centre and
the doctor is ignoring them,” said the ex-inmate.
In late July, the Zimbabwe Red Cross Society (ZRCS) in
partnership with Coca-Cola Foundation donated an assortment of goods to
quarantine centres in Manicaland as part of efforts to mitigate the effects of Covid-19.
