Dan Hooker returns home to two-week mandatory quarantine following war with Dustin Poirier

Dan Hooker returned home to New Zealand following his five round war with Dustin Poirier but it will be at least two weeks before he can hug his family.

As part of the travel restrictions set up by the government in his native country, the lightweight contender has to stay locked down in quarantine as part of the protocols for the coronavirus.

After arriving back home, Hooker posted a photo on Twitter showing the social distancing required for his family to come see him.

New Zealand was one of the first countries to issue strict mandates to stop the spread of COVID-19. As a result, there were only 1515 cases of COVID-19 in the country with 22 deaths as of June 23.

Hooker knew that he would have to go into quarantine following the fight with Poirier as required by the government in New Zealand.

“I’m coming over the Tuesday before the fight,” Hooker told MMA Fighting when revealing his travel plans prior to the event. “We’ll stay at the [fighter] hotel and then fight Saturday. Sunday, I’m heading back to New Zealand and then when we arrive back in New Zealand, I have to go into a government mandated quarantine for two weeks.

“The government sets you up at a specific hotel and they keep you isolated in a 14-day isolation before I can get back, before I can resume normal life.”

While it will certainly sting to not spend that much time with his family over the next two weeks, Hooker says that’s all part of the job when competing during such a trying time across the world.

As coronavirus cases have started to spike in several states across the U.S. in recent days, Hooker knows that precautions like those in New Zealand are just part of the new normal moving forward.

“The way I look at it, I don’t see this going away any time soon,” Hooker said. “For a two-week stay at a hotel, I get to go do what I love, make some money to feed my family. That’s a pretty easy choice for me.

“I don’t see this two-week quarantine going anywhere, especially in New Zealand for at least the next year.”