Updated Wednesday 11:00 a.m.
KSAT IT team member Sebastian Jovell is back home in San Antonio after being stuck in Argentina for two weeks due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jovell said he got out of Argentina just in time because flights are now getting canceled.
“The worst part (about coming home) was not knowing if the flight I was scheduled on would be canceled or not,” Jovell said. “I would hardly sleep. I would be up all night checking which flight would be canceled next. I must have had my flight changed at least eight times and even had to switch airlines to get home.”
Jovell said his flight from Argentina to Chile was about half full, but the flight from Chile to Atlanta was packed. The flights from Atlanta to San Antonio on Tuesday were nearly empty.
Jovell said he’s relieved to be home and eager to get back to work. Right now, he’s performing his job duties from home.
Updated Tuesday at 11:19 a.m.
We have some good news about a KSAT IT team member who has been stuck in Argentina amid the coronavirus pandemic.
After finishing his quarantine, Sebastian Jovell was able to get on a plane Monday and is heading to Chile, where he will fly to Atlanta and eventually to San Antonio.
Original story:
A member of the KSAT tech team is stuck in Argentina, where he was visiting his family this month.
Sebastian Jovell got to the country on March 9, and soon after, the government there set a mandatory quarantine for anyone visiting Argentina from a country affected by COVID-19. His quarantine ends Monday, March 23.
On Wednesday, he updated his KSAT family with some good news. He finally was able to book a flight for Monday. Now, he’s hoping that flight won’t get cancelled.
During one of the daily check ins, Sebastian took his phone around a lush green backyard.
“This is where I’m at right now. And there is a pool!” he said, laughing.
He was in a much better emotional state after a big upgrade from where we found him Tuesday, confined to a room at his cousin’s house.
“That was pretty much my choice, in order to be overly cautious. My cousin also lives with my aunt and uncle, who are over 65. My aunt has diabetes. So I wanted to make sure she didn’t have contact with me, and I didn’t want any complications,” Sebastian said.
Despite the fact that he has shown no symptoms and feels fine, his family was able to move him to an Airbnb where his grandmother often stays. The landlord was OK with the fact that he was in quarantine.
His uncle is staying with him, keeping a safe distance away, just to be safe.
“He’s going to be the one getting most of my stuff for the moment. He’s basically my lifeline around here,” Sebastian said.
Hopefully, not for long as his flight is scheduled for Monday when his quarantine ends.
“No guarantee it will actually go out on Monday, but it’s the closest thing they can confirm for right now. It changes day to day, hour to hour right now,” Sebastian said.
Still, he said he feels much better now than he did earlier in the week.
“Now I’m starting to kind of wind down a little more and realize things are out of my control, but I can still be positive about the situation. Before I was anxious and having trouble sleeping because I didn’t know what was going to happen, and I was going stir-crazy not being able to be outside of that one room,” he said.
KSAT plans to keep up with Sebastian on his journey home to San Antonio, however long that may be.
“I miss my wife and my parents and you guys at KSAT,” he said. “You’re doing an amazing job covering this, and I wish I was there to help.”
We asked him how locals are reacting to the pandemic. He said although there are more cases here in the U.S. than Argentina, schools, shopping centers and a lot of businesses have closed. There was also a 10-day quarantine for the whole country as the government assessed the situation, trying to stop the spread.
COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the new virus, stands for coronavirus disease 2019. The disease first appeared in late 2019 in Wuhan, China, but spread around the world in early 2020, causing the World Health Organization to declare a pandemic in March.
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