More than 140 Russians evacuated from Wuhan over coronavirus outbreak are confined to sanatorium

In a forest in Siberia, more than 140 Russians and others evacuated from Wuhan, the centre of the coronavirus outbreak, have been confined to a sanatorium patrolled by members of Russia’s National Guard instructed to let no one enter or exit.

Inside, many have taken to Instagram to blog their time in quarantine, snapping photos of their dinner and exercise routines, or even holding live Q&A sessions from the rooms they will be confined to for the next two weeks.

What would in the past have been a solitary affair, a fortnight fighting fear and boredom in quarantine during an international health emergency, has been transformed through wifi and social media into Russia’s strangest reality show.

“I’m making a style from pyjamas for prisoners (in the quarantine zone),” wrote one young woman, posing on her bed in the green-and-white striped robes issued to the evacuees.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Medical personnel meet people evacuated by a Russian military plane at an airport outside Tyumen, Russia, on 5 February. Photograph: Maxim Slutsky/AP

Pavel Lichman, a model who was evacuated from Wuhan, published a video of himself working out, a circuit of planks, sit-ups and leg lifts. “My health is in order, thanks to my workout,” he joked in a caption.

“We’re in a guesthouse about 30km from Tyumen,” a city in western Siberia, Lichman told the Guardian. “The quarantine is pretty hands-off and easy. The only thing is that we’re not allowed to come into contact with the people who are in the neighbouring rooms. We don’t leave our rooms. They bring us food. Doctors come in to test us: check our temperatures, inspect our throats, and measure the amount of oxygen in our blood.”

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“We’re going to do sport,” he said of his plans for the next two weeks. “I’m going to have a blog on TikTok, read books, watch TV shows, answer questions for journalists. We’ve got dominoes. We’re going to talk, develop ourselves, and look after our health.”

If the evacuees leave their rooms, doctors warned, the two-week countdown starts again.

In blogposts, some thanked the Russian government for their evacuation, while others asked why they had been transported to the middle of Siberia, roomed in groups of two or three, and relieved of all their personal belongings.

The online posts have also provided a counterpoint to official Russian information about the quarantine. Although government officials said on Thursday that no one at the Tyumen facility had showed signs of illness, one woman wrote that an evacuee had been taken by doctors during the night after showing a slight temperature.

In the other rooms, Russians took stock of the bizarre turn of events that had left them without their luggage, confined to their rooms at a sanatorium usually reserved for convalescents. There, they fielded a slew of requests from journalists and well-wishers, as well as some criticism from locals angry that the quarantine had been established in their region.

“I can imagine the displeasure of people from Tyumen due to our arrival,” wrote Nadezhda, another evacuee from Wuhan. “But I remind you: we were taken directly from the plane to the sanatorium, everyone was in masks, there was no contact with other people. Now we are going to sit in quarantine for two weeks without leaving our rooms.”

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Police cars are parked at an entrance of the sanatorium. Photograph: Maxim Slutsky/AP

“I don’t understand where all the hate and panic comes from,” she continued. “I feel like the holy inquisition is waiting for us at night. 😁”

Most planned out their time in lockdown. “Plans for the next two weeks,” one young woman wrote while firing up a Netflix documentary about the rapper Travis Scott. Another said she planned to use the time to study languages.

Marina Zaitseva, a student who was visiting Wuhan when the outbreak occurred, gave a video tour of a guestroom provided with a travel chessboard, two books (My Name is Ophelia and That Perfect Someone), tea, bananas and a jar of pickles.

In earlier remarks to the Fontanka.ru website, she described a difficult evacuation from China onboard a military airplane with little idea of where they were headed when they reached Russia. When they arrived at the sanatorium, they were told to give up their clothing for disinfection.

“In the hall we were met by people not just in masks, but in full bodysuits,” she said. “They met us as though we were radiating this virus.”