ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman is finally back home after 10 days stuck quarantining in the country of Panama after testing positive for COVID just before her flight home.
We last spoke to Danielle Bullock and Donna Davis-Nunes, 65, just before the new year when they toured 11Alive through their hotel room on video. They had just begun a government-mandated 14-day quarantine in a room that was not disability-friendly.
Davis-Nunes is Bullock’s aunt who has primary progressive multiple sclerosis and needs her wheelchair to get around. Meanwhile, Bullock has Type-1 diabetes and was running out of insulin.
Eleven days later, one of them is back at home in the United States.
“Oh my gosh, so much better now that I’m home,” Bullock said when asked how she was.
After our story, the U.S. Embassy got in touch along with several local groups to try and help the women.
“An organization called the Health Care Alliance, which is actually a group of VSOs in Panama, they got in touch with us as well and provided us with food and supplies, and also provided me with insulin because I actually ran out,” Bullock said.
Several other groups such as the Black Expats in Panama and The Society of Friends of the West Indian Museum of Panama emailed 11Alive to say they went to the hotel to help but were denied entry.
Bullock added they were never moved to a disability-friendly room, despite asking and being told they would. She said the hotel did offer to transfer her aunt to a hospital, but they’d have to separate and she wouldn’t know how to get in touch.
“I wasn’t letting her out of my sight for any reason and she felt the same,” Bullock said.
She finally hit a stroke of luck when she heard other Americans talking on her floor. Through them, she learned the quarantine timeline had changed from 14 days down to 10 days.
So, she called the doctor downstairs.
“And [said] we can leave on Jan. 6, right? And they obliged,” Bullock said.
Both she and her aunt were ready and headed to the airport.
Once they arrived for their flight, the airline told them they’d need more than a signed certificate from the Ministry of Health in Panama as they were told. They were then informed they’d have to take another COVID test to prove they were negative before they could board the flight home.
Bullock is convinced the initial test they took that sent them into quarantine was a false positive since both she and her aunt are vaccinated -- her aunt is boosted -- and the two other travelers they were with tested negative. However, she’ll never really know.
The stress of possibly quarantining again was too much on her aunt, so Davis-Nunes stayed with a friend in Panama to regain her strength.
Meanwhile, Bullock found a private company to administer the COVID test and then flew home to Atlanta.
“I’m going to let her let me know when she’s comfortable enough. I think it’ll be at least a week,” Bullock said.
Bullock said the U.S. Embassy knows her aunt stayed behind and is aware of any assistance she might need.
While Bullock lives in Berlin, Germany, she is from Lithonia and said she plans to be more strategic about where she’ll take her next international trip.