Police hold Nigeriens with COVID-19 in office

The Accra Central Police station was forced to convert one of its offices into a quarantine centre to hold two persons for about one week, while they waited for the results of their coronavirus disease (COVID-19) status after they were arrested for defying the restriction on movement.

The two foreigners, who were suspected to have come into Ghana through unapproved routes, were arrested on board a taxi at a police checkpoint mounted in front of the Ghana Cocoa Board office, in Accra.

The test report released by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) after six days, confirmed that the two tested positive.

The police, after knowing the COVID-19 status of the two persons, had to wait for two more days before the patients were picked up by a medical team from the Ga East Municipal Hospital.

Arrest

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Mrs Effia Tenge, who confirmed the incident to the Daily Graphic, explained that the station had to set up the temporary quarantine centre because the police did not want to mix new suspects arrested with people already in custody, as a measure to avoid the spread of the virus.

She said on April 5, the police arrested the two Nigeriens and the driver of a taxi during their routine check of vehicles and their occupants under the COVID-19 operation.

The two persons, who had their luggage in the vehicle, she said, had discrepancies in their accounts to the police and because of a language barrier they later had to speak through an interpreter as one of them could speak the Hausa language.

She said the police personnel called the COVID-19 Management Team, who advised that they should be taken to the Greater Accra Regional Hospital for their samples to be taken, after which they were brought back to the Central Police Station where they were held in one of the offices.

The test results were ready last Saturday, paving the way for the Ga East Municipal Hospital, the national COVID-19 treatment centre, to come for them for treatment.

A statement issued on April 14, 2020 by the Ghana Police Public Affairs Directorate said the two had refused to submit to treatment at the centre, making their management difficult and therefore had to be returned to the police facility as a matter of necessity, to enable health officials to manage them.

It said measures had been put in place to ensure no police personnel came into contact with the two while government officials liaised with the Ambassador of Niger on the management of the two Nigerien nationals.