Police in Jinja have rescued an investor from the vicious hands of residents who attempted to lynch him for refusing to quarantine himself after reportedly sneaking through the airport.
Billy Thiart a Ugandan investor of South African descent, was on Sunday attacked by residents of Kyabirwa village in Budondo sub-county, Jinja district following a Facebook message he posted claiming he dodged quarantine at the airport.
Upon his arrival home in the wee hours of the morning, Billy was confronted by fuming residents who started questioning him before slapping him. Police swung into action and rescued him.
On his post that has since been deleted, Billy boasted of how he freely passed through Entebbe Airport without being quarantined.
“We landed at 3:00 am this morning from South Africa via Ethiopia at Entebbe. Temperature check and a form to fill in. No quarantine mentioned,” reads his Facebook post in part.
His neighbors who happened to read through the post immediately alerted the local council authorities for fear of him spreading the virus to the whole village in case he turns out positive.
Twaha Kisubi, the area LCI Chairperson says that he also read the Facebook post and notified health workers to ensure he is quarantined.
A team of health workers led by the district health officer, Dyogo Nantamu, examined Billy who showed no symptoms at all and recommended for his 14-day quarantine.
Meanwhile, the Kiira region deputy police commander, Onesmus Mwesigwa says that they have established a 24/7 security and medical team to ensure that, Billy complies with the self-quarantine guidelines.
South Africa confirmed on Sunday (March 22) that its coronavirus tally had reached 274 out of 9,315 tests run so far. It is the second most impacted country behind Egypt whose figures are inching past 300 mark.
