London, Ont. family looks back on narrow escape from the epicentre of the COVID-19 outbreak

A London, Ont. family is looking back on their narrow escape from Wuhan, China mere hours before the city was put on lockdown for COVID-19.

“We got a text message at 4:30 a.m., and it was from a friend in Wuhan telling us the city was going to be quarantined in six hours,” teacher Darren Keenan said.

“We knew something was wrong, so we made a quick decision to get out of there fast.”

Keenan said by 6 a.m., they left Wuhan for the nearest city to make their way to Hong Kong.

He has worked as an English teacher in China for the last two years, living in Wuhan for the previous nine months.

He, his wife, and their 10-year-old son lived in an apartment building in the city with other school staff.

Keenan said in the months leading up to the quarantine, students had been telling them that people were getting sick in the city, and the school’s administration had wanted teachers not to talk about it.

“We had known, the city had known for a month before it happened that something was going on in the city because people were getting sick,” he said.

“There was something in the air; it’s like all of a sudden people in the streets start wearing masks and you’re told everything is fine, but you know the government is lying to you.”

It took them about three days to travel to Hong Kong from central China and then another three days before they were able to make their way to Taiwan and later to Toronto.

“All along the way, the cities are being shut down due to quarantine.”

“When you see the police pushing people and the security guards pushing people inside to keep them indoors and then all of a sudden, the streets are empty, it’s time to leave,” Keenan said.

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After arriving home, Keenan said he was surprised that he and his family were not screened for the virus or quarantined.

He said they then made their way back to London and self-quarantined themselves for two weeks.

Since the family was not planning on being back until the summer, it is hard settling back into life, living in an Airbnb while they waited for tenants to move out of their house.

Although still receiving a salary from the school he works at in China, Keenan said he and his wife are looking for jobs in London and have gotten their son enrolled in a local elementary school.

For the family the worst is over, but Keenan said the concern now is for colleagues still in Wuhan who are having trouble accessing resources.

He said people are getting warned by the Chinese government on social media not to say anything negative about the virus.

“They have difficulty getting food. The price of food, the price of everything has gone through the roof.

“We have a teacher from South Africa who can’t get his kidney medication, and he is rationing medication he needs to survive,” Keenan said.

Ontario health officials have confirmed the fifth presumptive case of COVID-19 in Canada. The woman who is her 60s lives in Toronto had recently returned from a trip to Iran. She was discharged from the hospital and is in self-solation.

Toronto Public Health said it is actively looking at who the woman was in contact with, including following up with the infected individual and her close contacts.

Globally, the coronavirus has infected about 81,000 people. In Iran, there are 95 confirmed cases, and the virus has killed 16 people in the last week.

— With files from Global News’ Gabby Rodrigues