MOSCOW — It’s a refurbished Soviet-style sanatorium, but there are no visitors, staff wear decontamination suits and riot police stand guard outside in temperatures of around -15 Celsius. In the fenced-off complex in Siberia, 144 people have been put in quarantine under close observation for two weeks after the Russian military evacuated them this week from the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic, the Chinese city of Wuhan. Markov told Reuters most of those quarantined were young and had dealt with the surreal circumstances well, but that he thought some people’s patience would wear thin as time went on. The 144 people were flown from China on two Ilyushin Il-76 military planes, a trip that took 13 hours. They sat on wooden benches covered with Soviet woolen blankets and the only toilets available were portaloos in tents.

Source: National Post February 07, 2020 18:45 UTC