Lived in a warehouse near the morgue: how a Russian woman got stuck in Los Angeles due to quarantine

English teacher Arina Dashkova dreamed of a trip to the United States for many years. She taught classes in St. Petersburg, made a visa, saved up money for a trip. And then the dream came true - on February 23, Arina was in Los Angeles, three weeks of wonderful rest were ahead - the return flight was scheduled for March 19. Arina thought to live with friends of her friends, but on the last day everything changed. The woman had to live in a garment factory warehouse, get into the epicenter of a coronavirus, see hundreds of dead Americans being brought in and not be able to return to Russia. Writes about it "TVNZ".

Photo: Shutterstock

Put out, saw the morgues

A friend of Arina Dashkova did not live in Los Angeles itself. But after the health problems of her friend, Arina had nowhere to live in the USA and she began to look for options.

“The first week I lived in a rented room, which I paid for officially on Airbnb. And then on March 5th, the coronavirus attacked Los Angeles. The landlady called and evicted us because of the epidemic. I was put out on the street. My American friend got me a job in the warehouse of a garment factory, because I couldn’t rent cheap housing - everything was more than $70 a day,” says Arina Dashkova.

From the window of a garment factory, Arina saw homeless people, and how the Convention Center was converted into a hospital. And in the parking space they put huge refrigerated trucks - morgues. And corpses were brought in packs all day long. In parallel to Dashkova, a message arrives by mail that her flight Los Angeles-Frankfurt-Moscow-St. Petersburg is postponed indefinitely. That is, they do not return the money - you can use the voucher after normalizing the situation.

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“Nine days before departure, Lufthansa said that my flight was canceled until better times. I don't have a penny of money. I started registering on the State Services website to receive financial assistance as someone stuck abroad. I was refused twice until I started writing to the Foreign Ministry and the Kremlin. There were no explanations - they were simply refused,” says Arina Dashkova.

Friends sent money

Realizing the difficult situation, the woman wrote a post on social networks with a request to send her money. Friends sent a small amount for groceries and a return ticket. To return home on an export flight, Arina had to pay money.

“I received a message by mail from the government of the Russian Federation that a flight is planned from New York on May 4, and if I want to fly, I must buy a ticket for $ 500. Yes, my round-trip ticket cost so much. Where do these prices come from? ” - Arina Dashkova is indignant.

The problem was that Arina was in Los Angeles, and the flight was from New York. The distance between these cities is 4 471 km.

“Back then I didn’t have money from friends yet. I needed to buy a ticket from Los Angeles to New York (the price had skyrocketed to $500) and pay another $500 for a flight from New York to Moscow. I only had money for the flight on May 14th. By the way, I only started receiving the promised financial assistance from the state on May 9,” says Dashkova.

She flew to New York on the Lufthansa flight, where passengers sat in five rows from each other. The plane from New York to Moscow flew full - about 300 people.

I got to Moscow, but I need to Peter

In Sheremetyevo, all passengers were measured temperature, and then for about three hours, according to Arina Dashkova, they were kept in the room where they filled out questionnaires and signed self-isolation.

“I’m from St. Petersburg. I need to go there. And they tell me - I need to stay in Moscow in quarantine for 14 days. I was not given the right to order a private taxi where I would travel alone. In five hours along the toll road, I would be in St. Petersburg, registered and serving quarantine at home. But no,” says Arina Dashkova.

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The woman had to quickly look for an apartment, ask for contactless key delivery. She was feared to rent housing. And yet she found an apartment for 15 rubles ($ 000), and this is an additional cost.

Arina did not like the housing option from the state.

“I read about these boarding houses near Moscow, where there is double occupancy (what if the second woman is sick?). Live there for two weeks. People wrote that it was forbidden to open the door to the corridor, the windows were sealed, the stuffiness was incredible. You can't go out for a walk. That’s why I refused,” says Arina.

As a result, from Sheremetyevo, Dashkova was taken by minibus, in which there were 15 people, to Pyatnitsky highway, from where she walked a kilometer to a rented apartment. Now Arina is trying to connect to the Internet, to find means of subsistence in Moscow.

“Going out to the balcony, the electronic system for monitoring people in quarantine considers it a violation, I’m trying to buy clothes for myself because my luggage was lost at the New York airport, and I really want to go home to St. Petersburg. I’m 52 years old, and I have such adventures,” says the victim Arina Dashkova.

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