Update: The chief sanitary doctor at the Botkinskaya clinic has filed a lawsuit against Ilyina, the state-run TASS news agency reported Thursday. After two days of solitary confinement, freedom tasted sweet to Alla Ilyina. The 32-year old housewife had been quarantined in St. Petersburg’s Botkinskaya clinic since she went for a check-up after returning from China’s Hainan seaside resort with a sore throat. She tested negative for the coronavirus three times, and decided to take matters into her own hands when doctors insisted she had to stay. “I drew up a map before and made a detailed plan. 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. I studied physics, which helped,” Ilyina told The Moscow Times. “Our Constitution guarantees freedom. I didn’t understand why I had to stay in a hospital cage,” she added. Ilyina was one of thousands of Russians and Chinese who have been quarantined for the WHO-recommended 14-day period after showing symptoms of the coronavirus, which has killed over 1,000 people worldwide. Only two cases have been confirmed in Russia. Both patients were Chinese nationals and have since recovered. While Russia has so far escaped the ravages of the virus, doctors and legal experts disagree over whether the strict quarantine rules the country has implemented are lawful.

“If there are no symptoms anymore, if the tests all come back negative, then doctors don’t’ have a legal right to keep a patient in quarantine, it is considered involuntary detention and abuse of office,” said Svetlana Savinova, president of the Axiom association of lawyers. Savinova also referred to Article 236 of Russia’s Criminal Code, which says that while Russians will be held accountable for violations of sanitary-epidemiological rules, they can only be charged if a transgression leads to mass disease, poisoning or death. In St. Petersburg, not a single case of the coronavirus has yet been identified. Doctors in favor of the stern quarantine policies argue that these strict rules are exactly what is keeping the number of Russians infected at zero. “Her escape is shocking. This is a poorly thought out impulsive act that could have grave consequences,” infectious disease specialist Vladislav Zhemchugov told The Moscow Times. Ilyina wasn’t the first patient to have escaped quarantine in Russia. Last week, Russian media reported that Guzel Neder, 34, and her son fled a hospital in the southern city of Samara.