Wednesday 24 / April / 2024
Muscat: The Omani students who were airlifted from China to Jordan to avoid infection from COVID-19 have been released from hospital, after testing negative for the novel coronavirus.
Speaking from the Jordanian capital, Amman, Counsellor Faisal Al Hosni of the Embassy of Oman in Jordan, said that while one of the three Omani students had already left for Muscat, the other two would soon leave Jordan to continue their studies and reunite with their families.
“The three Omani students are already out of Al Basheer Hospital in Amman, the hospital which had kept under quarantine all the Arab students who’d been flown out of Wuhan, since about a week ago,” he explained. “In terms of the health of the Omani students, the medical results of all of them have turned out to be negative, and they are all fine.”
“The isolation period was for 10 days,” added Al Hosni. “They were allowed to leave after Jordanian officials received confirmation from hospital staff that their results were indeed negative. The Omani embassy in Amman was in constant contact regarding the students’ health, continuously liaising with the Jordanian officials, as well as the students, from the moment they arrived at Queen Alia Airport on the plane from Wuhan.”
Following their release from Al Basheer, the Omani students were temporarily put up by their embassy at a hotel in Amman, with officials organising their travel arrangements for them, once consular officials had been informed of their plans.
Referring to the students by their last names only, Al Hosni expanded on the intentions of the three students, saying, “The students told us they wished to leave Jordan. Al Farai told us that he wanted to travel to Zanzibar, because his family lived there and Al Alyani asked to go to Germany to complete her studies at the university at which she was already enrolled, having been sent there to study by the Ministry of Higher Education.”
“However, the third student, Al Jabri, asked to go back to Oman to stay with his family,” added Al Hosni.
“The embassy arranged for Al Jabri to travel back to Oman directly because there was no need to stay in Jordan, which was a case different from that of his fellow students. Al Jabri left Jordan last Wednesday, and the embassy remained in contact with him until he reached his home in Muscat. Al Alyani will leave Jordan in the next couple of days, and Al Farai will leave on Wednesday, February 19, 2020.”
“The embassy asked the hospital for the medical reports of the three students, because we needed to confirm that they were in good health, and that they were free of the novel coronavirus,” he added. “We asked them to wait at the hotel until they had completed the 14-day waiting period, which was mandatory after leaving China, and we have been told that no quarantine procedures will be required for them in the countries to which they will travel.”
Commenting on why the Omani and other Arab students in China had been initially brought to Jordan, where they were placed under quarantine before departing to their respective destinations, Al Hosni said, “The decision of transferring the students from China on a Jordanian plane was taken because the Jordanian authorities sent a private plane to bring home the Jordanian students, and here the Omani embassy in Beijing and other Omani officials realised this was also an opportunity to evacuate Omani students, as the Chinese government had enforced strict procedures when it came to transport operations. And we didn’t know how much time it would take to organise transportation.”
“Therefore, coordination with Jordanian officials was done to transfer the three Omani students,” he added.
