By Our Reporter
BLANTYRE-(MaraviPost)—In a movie like episode, a 27-year-old coronavirus patient escaped from isolation room at Karonga District Hospital on Saturday, beating the security systems.
Information sourced shows that the escapee then travelled to Mpata within the district before proceeding to his home of origin at Kachere near Chintheche in Nkhata Bay.
Besides exposing the security lapse at the facility, health workers have said the escape is worrisome because the patient may likely have used public transport when he travelled to Mpata then from Karonga through Mzuzu City to Nkhata Bay.
Eye witnesses in Nkhata Bay said the patient was in contact with many people who used the same public transport and that he visited drinking joints at Chintheche in Nkhata Bay.
Hospital authorities in Karonga and Nkhata Bay admitted on Tuesday they were in a dilemma regarding the tracing of the patient’s contacts.
In an interview with the Nation, Karonga District director of health and social services David Sibale lamented the security lapse, but stated that even while at the hospital, the person was getting calls from people from Mpata, some of whom allegedly threatened his life.
He said: “After escaping on Saturday, he went to Chilambiro, but when we followed up twice, and even on the second occasion when we went with police, the community was uncooperative. They lied to us that he had gone back to Tanzania. But now we have information that he is in Nkhata Bay which is his home of origin.”
Sibale said they are puzzled with the patient’s escaped from the isolation place because there is no sign that he broke doors or windows.
Nkhata Bay District Hospital spokesperson Christopher Singini confirmed that the young man is under their care, but at home, because “he has proved to be difficult”.
He said the man was spotted at a bar in Chintheche on Monday from where he was taken to his home village.
