Russian woman sued for escaping coronavirus quarantine

A quarantined Russian woman faces a lawsuit for endangering the public after escaping from a hospital by short-circuiting the electronic door to her ward, according to reports.

Alla Ilyina, who had returned from China earlier this month, was under observation at the Botkin Hospital for Infectious Diseases in St. Petersburg, according to state news agency TASS.

The city’s chief sanitary physician filed a lawsuit against the woman for allegedly committing an administrative offense by breaking quarantine regulations and potentially exposing people to the virus, the news outlet reported.

Almost 230 Russian nationals are waiting to return from China, according to CNN, which cited Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency.

Two coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Russia, authorities said. The two patients were Chinese citizens who traveled to Russia, according to TASS. One of them has recovered.

“The Russian embassy and the consulate general in China are closely monitoring the situation and staying in touch with Russian citizens that are in China’s districts where the disease has spread,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said this week.