Daoud Kuttab

AMMAN: A Jordanian coronavirus patient sparked a major health security scare after fleeing hospital quarantine to go home.

Officials at the Prince Hamzah Hospital in Amman called on security forces to track down Yasser Saudi when he refused to follow Jordanian Ministry of Health isolation rules aimed at preventing the spread of the killer virus.

News of Saudi’s bolt from hospital while infected with the COVID-19 disease, on Sunday quickly circulated on social media.

Security officers found Saudi at his home and immediately took him and a housekeeper back to the hospital.

Speaking later on Al-Mamlaka TV from a quarantine unit, Saudi said he had not escaped but decided to leave the hospital because he felt treatment facilities were inadequate.

“When I arrived, I was met with a male nurse who was not wearing gloves or a mask and when I saw the quarantine quarter I decided to leave and went home to continue the self-imposed quarantine I had started,” he added.

Dr. Natheer Obeidat, head of the Jordanian health ministry’s epidemic section, told Arab News: “This was a single case and is normal. It is to be expected that people will worry and have fears because everything is new and surprising especially the idea of being restricted under quarantine.”

Obeidat, who is the spokesman for Jordan’s coronavirus portfolio, said that the government had no alternative but to publish Saudi’s name after he ran away from the hospital. “He had escaped, and we needed to alert others that he might come in contact with to be careful.”

Saudi tested positive for the virus when he fell ill five days after arriving in Jordan from the UK. He was called to attend Prince Hamzah Hospital, which offered to send him an ambulance for him, but he refused in preference to driving there in his own car. Hospital officials said that Saudi was told that he would not be allowed to return home, but video footage later showed him running away.

On Monday, Jordanian health chiefs ordered that all travelers entering the country would have to go into quarantine, an announcement that caused angry scenes at Dead Sea and Amman hotels.

But Obeidat said that the government had no choice. “We knew that many of those coming at the last minute especially from Europe might carry the virus without knowing it, so we had to make a split-second decision at midnight and we decided to forcefully quarantine everyone arriving on those last flights before the airport is closed.

“Jordan’s airport in both directions will be closed Tuesday night. Jordanians returning must use land or seaports to enter the country.”