Four Japanese nationals aboard a Kenya Airways flight to Freetown, Sierra Leone, were barred from disembarking one exhibited symptoms similar to coronavirus.
The four flew from Amsterdam to Nairobi for the connecting flight to Freetown and back after they were turned back by Sierra Leone authorities.
Kenyan health authorities, however, reported that the tourists were clear of the virus, with the difference in outcomes from the preliminary screenings at two airports raising questions.
Screening involves checking on body temperatures and any readings above 37-degree Celsius is considered suspect and the case placed in isolation.
“On arrival in Nairobi, further screening was conducted by port health authorities at JKIA, where they were cleared to travel,” KQ said in a statement.
By late afternoon, airport officials were still trying to figure out how to get the four back home to Japan as most flights to Asian nations remained suspended.
Japan’s embassy in Nairobi had been notified of the events and was reported to be working on their visas to enable them travel should flight options be found.
Had the screening at JKIA turned out positive, the authorities disclosed, the tourists would have been taken to the nearest isolation facilities, in this case the Mbagathi District Hospital.
International air traffic guidelines have the requirement to quarantine any suspected case of communicable infections such as Covid-19 at the country where the screening picked out a victim.
It is unclear then why the Sierra Leonean authorities, upon suspicion of the one case, did not place the group under watch given the risk they would pose on the return flight.
“The station manager of Kenya Airways in Freetown alerted authorities at the Freetown International Airport about a suspicion of a possible Covid-19 infection based on the signs displayed on board the aircraft,” said the Sierra Leone Civil Aviation Authority in a statement.
It indicated further that fellow passengers were allowed to disembark and consequently, were all quarantined.
Credible news outlets in the West African country have since reported that the Japanese tourists declined to be quarantined and opted to be returned to Nairobi instead.
Latest information from the World Health Organisation showed that Sierra Leone remained among the few countries globally that were yet to record any confirmed case by last evening.
It could explain why isolation and quarantine are not yet mandatory, as is the case with Kenya, where seven cases had been confirmed, according to official statistics.
Tens more who are thought to have interacted with the confirmed cases have been placed under watch, while others are being sought.
Among the confirmed cases is a patient who had supposedly recovered before the disease recurred, prompting her to be returned to the Kenyatta National Hospital.
Later in the evening, Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Transport issued a statement banning all incoming international flights, effective tomorrow.
That would mean one less route for KQ, which has a majority of its fleet grounded as more countries ban incoming flights.
