HALIFAX -- Jordan MacDonald was teaching in China until the coronavirus outbreak.
Now, after a gruelling 24-hour trek to and from different airports, the young Maritime teacher has left the country and is now in Japan where she has family.
MacDonald managed to leave China this past weekend after becoming increasingly concerned about how fast the coronavirus is spreading.
"As far as I know, I am not sick anything more than someone who went through very stressful flights," MacDonald said.
Macdonald says she's confined herself to a hotel room in Japan and is limiting contact with the outside world.
She's been teaching in China since August, but not in the Wuhan region -- the area thought to be ground zero for the outbreak.
"It's always moving, there are stores always open, there are people always going places, and I went grocery shopping and most of the stores were closed and nobody was there," said MacDonald.
That in itself was enough to prompt her to leave, and the fact that flights in and out of most airports were being cancelled.
"At that point I was saying, 'I am going to get out of China, I don't care how,'" she said.
In Ottawa, federal officials outlined their plans to bring Canadians from the Wuhan region home.
A charter is scheduled to land at CFB Trenton, where the Canadians will be held in quarantine for 14 days.
Ottawa is still waiting for clearance from the Chinese government.
MacDonald is relieved to be out of China. Her students are at the end of what would be their annual spring break, but still she worries about their well-being.
"How are you supposed to feel when you've fled a country, that technically isn't your home country, but one that you've kinda adopted for the time because people are dying and disease is spreading like wildfire through the country," MacDonald said.
