It
will be recalled that the crew, who flew Air Peace’s Boeing 777-200ER
jumbo jet from China, landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International
Airport, Abuja.
Three
out of the 17 pilots and flight attendants who flew 14 Chinese medical
doctors and medical supplies from China to Nigeria on Wednesday have
boycotted the Lagos quarantine centre provided by the Lagos State
Government, investigations by Sunday PUNCH have revealed.
The crew, who flew Air Peace’s Boeing 777-200ER jumbo jet from China, landed at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja.
The
17 pilots and flight attendants later on Wednesday proceeded to Lagos
to be quarantined by the Lagos State Government in line with an
agreement the Ministry of Health reached with the carrier’s management.
The Chinese medical personnel were quarantined in Abuja.
Air
Peace partnered the Federal Government to ferry the 14-member Chinese
medical team and medical supplies from China to Nigeria.
The
Chinese team brought about 16 tons of test kits, ventilators,
disinfection machine, disposable medical masks, N95 masks, medications,
rubber gloves, protective gowns, goggles, face shields, infra-red
thermometers and others.
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie
Ehanire, who was at the airport to receive the Chinese doctors and their
supplies, said the team would be quarantined for two weeks.
He said, “They knew that before they came and have undergone tests before they left their country.
“Nevertheless,
they will be in quarantine for 14 days. The Nigerian Centre for Disease
Control has gone to see where they will be quarantined.”
Ehanire added: “The equipment (they brought) will assist a lot to fill some existing gaps. We now have 50 more ventilators.”
However,
Sunday PUNCH investigation showed that the flight crew members
disagreed with Port Health Services officials on duty at Lagos airport
over the 14-day compulsory quarantine.
Port Health Services is a
unit of the Ministry of Health that screens arriving and departing
passengers of infectious diseases especially COVID-19.
On arrival
at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at about 10pm on
Wednesday, the flight crew initially refused to be quarantined.
Ministry
of Health sources confirmed that the pilots and cabin crew members
claimed their management did not inform them of the 14-day compulsory
quarantine.
As such, the flight personnel initially refused to
follow the port health officials to the quarantine centre provided by
the Lagos State Government.
There was subsequently a heated
exchange that lasted for about three hours over the 14-day compulsory
quarantine between the crew and the port health officials.
After
several calls by the port health officials on duty to top officials of
the Ministry of Health in Abuja as well as top officials of the Lagos
State Ministry of Health, the crew members bowed to pressure and agreed
to go to the quarantine centre at about 1am.
On arriving the
Scholars Lodge at the University of Lagos where the state government had
prepared for the crew to be quarantine around 2am, another debate
ensued over the type of the apartment provided.
The crew members
insisted that they wanted a single-user apartment for each member of the
crew instead of the two-bedroom apartment meant to be shared by two
persons which the state provided.
Top health officials told
Sunday PUNCH the crew asked officers on duty to take them to another
facility as the apartments were not the type they wanted. This debate,
it was learnt, went on for another three hours till about 5 am before
the crew finally agreed to stay at the centre.
Meanwhile, before
the crew departed the Lagos airport, one of the 17 crew members had
escaped and left apparently for his house, unknown to the port health
officials.
This was not discovered until Thursday evening when a head count was conducted at the quarantine centre.
It
was also at this time officials discovered that two out of the 16 crew
members brought to the Scholars Lodge had also escaped.
Findings
by Sunday PUNCH revealed that the Ministry of Health and Lagos State
Government had reached out to the management of the airline over the
whereabouts of the two crew members.
As of the time of filing this report, it had yet to be ascertained where the two crew members were.
When
contacted on Friday, the Director, Port Health Services, Ministry of
Health, Dr Morenike Alex-Okoh, in her reaction, said she was not
authorised to speak on the matter. She directed our correspondent to the
minister of health or the health ministry’s permanent secretary.
The
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Health, Abdullahi Mashi, confirmed the
development but noted that the cabin crew members who left the
quarantine centre had returned to the facility, saying “they are back
now.”
Asked further about the health risks of the crew leaving
the quarantine, having met several other contacts during that period,
Mashi said, “They are back, it is left for the Lagos State
surveillance team to work on that. They will do the needful. The
important thing is that they are back.”
Air Peace also confirmed the development but did not explain the reasons the crew members left the facility.
The Chief Operating Officer, Air Peace, Mrs Toyin Olajide, in a terse message to Sunday PUNCH said, “All crew are back in the quarantine facility, including the engineer.”
Asked when the crew members returned to the facility, she said “Friday afternoon.”
She did not give reasons the crew left the quarantine facility.
Also,
the Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Health, Dr Olusegun
Ogunye, when contacted on the matter, confirmed the development but
noted that all the 17 pilots and flight attendants were back in the
facility.
Ogunye, who spoke through the spokesperson for the state health ministry, Mr Tubosun Ogubanwo, said, “The
state government has reached out to all the 17 pilots and flight
attendants through the Epidemiology and Surveillance Team on COVID-19.
So, all 17 of them are now together.”
Asked further on the
health implications of the crew leaving the quarantine centre and
returning after about 24 hours, Ogunye said, “What I want you to
know is that the state government has reached out to them and necessary
action has been taken. I believe the team is in charge of it.”
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