Patients in Russia have broken through locks and jumped out of windows in order to escape coronavirus quarantine

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Patients in Russia have broken through locks and jumped out of windows in order to escape coronavirus quarantine
russia coronavirus

Three patients in Russia have fled quarantine, in two unrelated cases, as the country has implemented strict protocol in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that originated in Wuhan, China.

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Thirty-four-year-old Guzel Neder told The Moscow Times that she fled a hospital with her young son, Leo, in the southern city of Samara after returning from a trip in Hainan, a Chinese island popular with Russian tourists.

Neder wrote on Instagram last month that her son developed a fever four days after their trip, and upon discussing the symptoms with emergency services, he was diagnosed with a viral respiratory infection. Both Neder and her son were instructed to go to the hospital to be tested for coronavirus.

Neder said she and her son were placed in quarantine for several days and were told to await testing for the deadly virus.

While in the hospital, Neder says she took a pregnancy test and discovered she was pregnant.

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Neder told The Times that the conditions at the hospital left her desperate to escape.

"The conditions there were awful. Doctors were very unprofessional and not wearing any protective gear," she said. "We had no choice but to jump out of [the] window."

She told The Times that she and her son were cleared of having coronavirus three days after escaping the hospital.

Another woman named Alla Ilyina told The Times that she had been quarantined in a St. Petersburg hospital after returning from Hainan last month. Despite testing negative for the coronavirus, she remained under lockdown in the hospital, which she likened to a "cage."

She told The Times that having studied physics in college, she devised a plan to break the magnetic lock on the hospital door in order to escape.

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"I drew up a map before and made a detailed plan," she told The Times. "When evening came and the medical staff had let their guard down, I short-circuited the magnetic lock in my containment room and opened the door."

According to the BBC, Ilyina had barricaded herself inside her apartment in St. Petersburg as police are seeking a court order to bring her back into quarantine.

Russia has quarantined thousands of citizens in an attempt to mitigate the spread of the virus, which has already killed 1,489 people and infected 64,000 others worldwide.

Russia has confirmed two cases of coronavirus in the country, both of whom were Chinese citizens and have since recovered.

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