Airline’s ban on Tenerife Britons

BRITISH holidaymakers confined to a Tenerife hotel were warned by an airline yesterday they will not be flown home until March 10 and only if they test negative for the virus.

Some 168 are among 700 guests stuck in the Costa Adeje Palace after at least four guests, including an Italian doctor, were diagnosed with coronavirus.

A further 50 Britons out of 130 who were released have yet to be flown home.

Those stuck in the hotel, who booked with Jet2, were told it would not fly them home for another 10 days until they have completed their quarantine and it is confirmed they do not have coronavirus.

The Canary Islands minister of health initially said a group of 130 low-risk guests – including around 50 British nationals

– had been able to leave because they arrived on Monday and did not come into contact with the four Italians who tested positive.

Frightening

For those left in the hotel it has become a frustrating and frightening time.

Lara Pennington, quarantined with her family, said she was concerned other Britons there were not taking isolation seriously enough.

She said she had sought a guarantee for her family’s safety “given we have remained in isolation and there will be other passengers on the plane who have not only gone into the hotel grounds but have not been following the protocols”.

Lara added: “I think it would be unfair to me and my family and [would] put us at risk at that point.”

Jet2 said: “We will not fly any customer who has stayed at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace during the quarantine, until this incubation period has passed or unless they have been explicitly tested for Covid-19 by a recognised authority and are confirmed as clear of the virus.”

The Foreign Office said it was supporting the 168 British tourists at the hotel.

Yvonne Doyle, medical director at Public Health England, has previously said that a health protection specialist had been sent from the UK to Tenerife.