Juliet Ninsiima, a Ugandan student based in Wuhan, China, and daughter of the late Prime Minister and NRM revolutionary Eriya Kategaya, is stranded due to a city lockdown which was put in place to curb the spread of the deadly coronavirus. Her flight back to Uganda was just hours away when she learnt of the travel ban from a local news network, China Daily Website after being advised by her Facebook friends to check and confirm if Wuhan City had been locked down.
“It is a cold Wednesday night in Wuhan and I have cleaned up my dormitory room. I am ticking off my final checklist before I leave university to return home. Suitcases packed, check. Passport and tickets,travel money, check. I hang out in my friend’s warm room happily chatting about my return to Kampala to much-needed sunshine, family and friends. I left her room at midnight with a plan of either going to sleep or watching a movie. Early the next day (Thursday), at about 4:00 am, my phone started pinging with new social media messages. I ignore them. The pinging continued and my sleep was interrupted. I grudgingly woke up to see what the fuss was about.” Ms Ninsiima narrates.
She further goes on to tell her story about the lock down experience and how she got stranded in China. She says when she checked the messages, it was her Facebook friends outside China asking me if Wuhan city had issued a travel ban.
“All I knew was that we were instructed to wear facemasks and cotton gloves to stop us from catching the coronavirus. I had done that for a week and I felt safe. My friends advised me to check out the local news networks. So, I went ahead to look for online news updates and behold, there is breaking news on the China Daily website that public transport in Wuhan would be temporarily shut down starting at 10:00 am as a way of containing the spread of the virus.” She further revealed.
Ms Ninsiima notes that the transport system in Wuhan had been closed down and there were no taxis or buses picking up passengers, the underground train gates were locked with notices informing the public to stay home.
Wuhan is the capital city of Hubei province and currently has 11 million inhabitants. It is the main centre of transport of central China because of it’s proximity to northern, southern, eastern region’s and their cities.
It is now infamously known as the ground -zero for the coronavirus because it mutated and ‘ jumped’ from animals that they illegally sold to local animal markets. It has so far reported around 580 cases of the deadly respiratory virus since December last year with the elderly being the most affected, followed by the marrieds and then children.
The coronavirus is a cluster virus with an incubation period of 10-14 days and carriers can quickly spread it to 5-10 people closest to them. Because winter brings it’s fair share of cough and influenza and because this virus has similar symptoms, the Hubei provincial government has locked down Wuhan city to control the spread of the epidemic. Shanghai and Hong Kong are to follow suit.
