LOVELAND, Colo.(KXRM) — A Colorado couple is among a number of patients who’ve been flown out of Wuhan, China by the U.S. government.
The virus believed to have originated in Wuhan, China, at a seafood and wildlife market has gone on to infect thousands of people.
The Denver-area couple, Christiana Duerksen and Tyler Traeger, were among those who arrived in California after the coronavirus quarantine.
They were released from a 14-day quarantine on February 11.
“We’re grateful that we did do the full quarantine in a way because at first, I was kind of nervous to go back to my family. Like, what if I did get them sick?” So now that we’ve had 14 days, I mean, there’s literally no chance we could have it. I think the real like incubation period is actually less than 14 days. That’s the government being extra careful. So now we’re, you know, we’re probably the safest people to be around cause we’ve been medically checked for 14 days,” said Loveland resident Tyler Traeger.
The couple went from self-quarantine, being locked up in their apartment, to being around others in the same situation going through the 14-day quarantine.
Duerksen went on to say, “I feel like, for a lot of us, we were honestly relieved to be around people again because, in self-quarantine, it’s just us in our apartment locked up. So being with a community, you do have that opportunity to meet people, make friends, kind of share comradery, and kind of have that shared experience with everyone.”
The couple moved to Wuhan after graduation to travel and teach children in China for a year before going to grad school. After just five months, a big wrench was thrown into their plans.
Their future is now up in the air.
“As far as the larger future goes, we’re even more lost, we’ll probably have to look for what we want to do next cause we were only teaching through July anyway,” Traeger said. “We still have a lot of unknowns; we don’t know when we can go back, and all of that is what’s the hardest part.”
The couple will now visit with family members in California before returning to Colorado and figuring out what is next.