A quarantine camp in the desert near Turkmenabad. Photo from Turkmen news
Around 15 people have fled from a quarantine camp in the Turkmen city of Turkmenabad, RFE/RL’s Turkmen service Azatlyk reports (in Russian), citing two doctors in the country. The individuals in question were being held in a 14-day quarantine after returning from Turkey, Russia and various CIS countries.
It is thought that the escapees bribed doctors serving at the quarantine camp. “Members of the security services arrested them at their homes and returned them to quarantine. They now face heavy fines or up to 1 year in jail,” one source told the news outlet.
The quarantine zone in Turkmenabad was set up at the start of February, with all flights bound for the capital Ashgabat redirected there. Local sources say that initial controls at the site were not especially strict.
It was reportedly possible to get out of the quarantine camp established in February for returnees from China with a quick call to influential contacts. It was apparently also possible to skip quarantine by paying police officers a bribe of either $100-150 or 2-3000 manats ($572-858 at the official exchange rate).
At the same time, those who spent time in the quarantine camps told Turkmen.news that the chances of being infected with the coronavirus at the camps were far higher than outside of quarantine, since newly-arrived returnees are being placed in the same tents as those who have already been in quarantine for some time without displaying signs of ill health.
Each tent reportedly contains 20 bunk beds with no safety distance between them, and new arrivals are mixed with those about to be released.
Chronicles of Turkmenistan reported the same situation in Turkmenabad Infectious Diseases Hospital. Patients showing symptoms of coronavirus are being placed in the same wards as those without symptoms, treated by the same medical staff in standard medical gowns.
Complaints about poor hygiene standards in COVID-19 quarantine facilities in Central Asia are nothing new. Some have even taken to posting videos of disturbing sanitary conditions on YouTube. Recently, Kyrgyzstan’s new health minister, an epidemiologist by training, announced his intention to get rid of the practice of holding those awaiting coronavirus test results for 14 days at quarantine facilities, arguing that this increases the risk of spreading the virus. “It’s better if they stay at home,” he said, than keeping them in “unideal conditions”. It was unclear, however, whether the new approach would cover all those awaiting results.
The Turkmen government continues to insist that the country has no cases of COVID-19 infections, although people in the Lebap region who complain of a high temperature are being treated without hospital registration. Patients with coronavirus symptoms are being told that their test results are coming back negative.
