For Quarantined Irving Newlyweds, Honeymoon Never Ends – NBC 5 Dallas

Quarantined Irving newlyweds Tyler and Rachel Torres finally thought
they’d make it home Monday, but now it is unclear when their nightmare
honeymoon will ever end.

The couple found themselves still stuck at Lackland Air Force Base
in San Antonio even after the federal quarantine ended at midnight.

“We are doing good but disappointed,” Tyler Torres said.

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“Hanging in there,” Rachel Torres added.

The couple’s dream honeymoon was a dream cruise on the Diamond
Princess, but it turned into a nightmare when some passengers were infected
with the Coronavirus and the ship was quarantined.

They said federal officials from the Centers for Disease Control
told them after 27 days and with no signs of them being sick, they and others
were free to leave the military base.

“Technically we can walk off if we want and go and chance it
on our own,” Tyler Torres said.

But they said they were told if they do leave the military base,
the state of Texas could forcibly detain them.

“We at Lackland aren’t allowed into San Antonio, to travel
through San Antonio, or anything to do with San Antonio and they are allowed to
do whatever means necessary to keep us out and that includes re-quarantining us,”
he said.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and other local officials were angered that
the CDC freed one man who later tested positive for Coronavirus and had to be
re-quarantined.

They demanded the federal government institute more stringent
testing requirements, and the two sides were “negotiating,” the Torres’s said
they were told.

So the couple said they felt like they were being held hostage –
not by the CDC but by the state of Texas.

“Our current problem is the state of Texas has decided we’re a
threat to the public health, which we firmly disagree with,” Rachel Torres
said.

“It has been a total of 27 days today for us,” Tyler Torres
said. “So I think we’ve had enough quarantine in our life.”

Tyler Torres, a nurse at a Dallas hospital, said his employer agreed
to pay him for the time he is in quarantine.

Rachel Torres, a recently-graduated occupational therapist, said
she was supposed to start a new job – a week-and-a-half ago. Her new start date
is unclear.