Travel
2-Month Coronavirus Lockdown Lifted For Evanston Native In China
An Evanston man whose vacation turned into months of quarantine in Hubei Province says it was emotional to be able to go outside again.
EVANSTON, IL — An Evanston native who spent two months under self-quarantine in China has left the home for the first time.
Kurt Mittenbuller told WGN-TV it was an emotional experience to be able to go outside as the government in Hubei Province lifted its strict isolation orders.
Mittenbuller had been living under lockdown since January in Enshi City, a city of about 800,000 people roughly 300 miles west of Wuhan — the city where the new coronavirus strain first emerged in humans last year.
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As Illinois began to close schools and restaurants, Mitenbuler said the Chinese government had been blaring messages over loudspeakers in the streets ordering people to stay at home and avoid contact with people, with violators subject to arrest.
At the time, he told WGN he felt safer in China than the United States "because nobody seems to be paying attention to anything there."
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