UT Arlington student says visiting Spain during COVID-19 pandemic was chaotic
ARLINGTON, Texas - One UT Arlington student thought he was going to have an exciting Spring Break visit to Spain.
When he arrived, the coronavirus pandemic became much worse. Now that he's home, the CDC says he — like anyone returning home from Spain and a lengthy list of level-three countries — must stay home for 14 days.
Sam Dennehy traveled to see his girlfriend in Madrid for Spring Break.
"I decided to go because the CDC hadn't said anything about it,” he said. “Lots of people wearing masks. Streets were pretty empty. Plazas were empty."
President Donald Trump announced a travel ban from Europe while Dennehy was there last week.
"I woke up to messages saying, ‘You're trapped in Europe for 30 days.’ And I was like, ‘Oh. We need to figure out what that is.’”
And while Dennehy wasn't trapped as U.S. citizens were allowed to return home, he says it was chaotic.
"My mindset pretty quickly shifted to like survival mode,” he said.
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Dennehy says the price to change flights home skyrocketed. Some were up to $10,000. He had to wait until his scheduled flight left Saturday.
"I think I was up for about 48 hours on my return journey,” he said.
Once back in the states, Dennehy and other passengers were screened by paramedics while exiting their aircraft. That was before a three-hour wait to get through customs at DFW Airport.
"It constantly seemed like people were about to riot,” he said.
DFW says federally mandated enhanced procedures led to the delays.
"We were all aware that we weren't supposed to be in big crowds,” Dennehy said. “And we were standing in a room with like 2,000 people from countries who… like somebody in that room probably had it."
Dennehy says he was ready to kiss the ground when he returned to the U.S.
"I came pretty close,” he said. “But then I was like, maybe the ground has corona."
Spain is now under a two-week state of emergency lockdown. Dennehy feels he got out just in time.
"It felt like something out of a movie,” he said.
Dennehy is hoping to make it out of quarantine without symptoms.
"So I've been like taking my temperature since I've been back twice a day, and it's been normal so far,” he said.
Dennehy says he has daily phone checkups with UT Arlington.
It was announced over the weekend that a different UT Arlington student tested positive for the coronavirus. Details of that case were not released.