TikTok star Charly Jordan issues apology for travelling to Rwanda during coronavirus pandemic
The influencer’s trip to “create content” and “raise awareness” was disrupted by a positive Covid-19 test
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TikTok influencer Charly Jordan has apologised for travelling to Rwanda at what she says was an “incorrect” time.
The social media influencer says she had a false positive test for Covid-19 and was held in government-mandated lockdown for four days in the country before a second negative result confirmed the first was inaccurate.
Earlier this month the 21-year-old shared a series of photos to inform her 3.2 million Instagram followers she had arrived in Rwanda for what was intended to be a 14-day trip.
“I couldn’t be more in love. The people, the food, the everything! It’s a more difficult to travel right now but we took all the proper precautions even if that meant getting tested a million times”, she wrote.
“I’m definitely corona free haha. 100 temperature checks later. Crazy where the world is right now.”
After sharing a series of content from her travels, including a video of her on a gorilla trek, Jordan posted a now-deleted teary video to her 1.8 million TikTok followers. She revealed she had tested positive for coronavirus.
“The f***ing government showed up at my place, and came and dragged me away from everybody I was with”, she said.
“I don’t speak the language, and they locked me in this fucking room. And I can’t leave.”
While awaiting a second Covid test, she wrote in TikTok comments which were screenshotted by user @defnoodles: “The US shouldn’t be letting anyone be traveling out of the country.”
She added that she had friends who were “still travelling everywhere”, including Mexico.
The influencer insisted she had already had coronavirus earlier in the year and had been told she couldn’t contract it again.
Four days later, Jordan posted again to say she had received a negative result from the second test, which meant she could end the isolation period imposed by the Rwandan government.
“They were wrong this whole time. I can leave!” she said in her TikTok video.
On Monday, Jordan reflected on her decision to travel and the video she had shared during quarantine, explaining why she has now deleted it.
In an Instagram story she said: "The video I uploaded to TikTok was very emotional. I never meant to offend anyone and I take full responsibility for my actions.
"I got separated from my group and was very confused because of the language barrier and should’ve educated myself more before travelling.
“I’ve learned my lesson and I know I shouldn’t have travelled during this time.”
She said: “I will not travel anymore during this time.”
Rwanda is one of the 30 countries that US citizens can travel to after the country’s travel ban was revoked by the US State Department in early August.
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