China Coronavirus Update: 2 Russians Escape Quarantine, Woman Jumps Off Window

Two Russian women escaped from the hospitals in their home cities after refusing the 14 day-long quarantine for coronavirus imposed by the Russian government on anyone returning from China.

One of the women is from the city of St. Petersburg located along the Neva River near Finland. The other is from the city of Samara in the southeastern part of European Russia.

Both women returned separately from holidays in Hainan Island located in the South China Sea. Hainan Island, the southernmost province of mainland China, is located 1,600 km to the south of the city of Wuhan, the epicenter of the Covid-19 outbreak currently rampaging through China.

One of the women, who is pregnant, escaped from a hospital in Samara with her son by jumping off the hospital window. In a long Instagram post, the unidentified woman said her son came down with a cough and fever days after returning to their home in Samara. The boy was diagnosed with a respiratory infection and tested at a hospital for Covid-19. Test results were still pending when both mother and son escaped from the hospital after five days of confinement.

She told doctors she and her son should be released because of her pregnancy and her concerns she and her baby might be infected by Covid-19. The doctors refused, saying they had to be held for 14 days. Police found her at her home, questioned her but didn't arrest her since the hospital filed no charges.

"My son was hysterical," she wrote. "There was no exit for us other than to leave the hospital without authorization, through the window."

“Everyone in my family is alive and healthy, thank God,” she wrote on Instagram.

The other woman, Alla Ilyina from St. Petersburg, also posted about her quarantine ordeal on Instagram. She said she came down with a sore throat after returning to St. Petersburg from Hainan.

She was taken to a hospital and was told she'd be released in 24 hours. She tested negative for the Novel coronavirus the next day but was refused release.

“All three tests showed I was completely healthy, so why the hell the quarantine?” wrote Ilyina.

On Instagram, she complained of having no Internet access, books, shampoo and other amenities. She figured out how to short-circuit the electronic lock to her room and escaped from the hospital on February 7.