FROM WUHAN TO THE WIRRAL
But as coach drivers without masks take arrivals to isolation, how safe are they — and the rest of us?
THE 83 Britons who had been trapped in China by the coronavirus outbreak finally arrived home yesterday on a rescue flight.
Wearing face masks and escorted by medics in hazmat suits, they were driven north on a fleet of coaches after flight EB8471 touched down at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, at about 1.30pm.
They were taken by drivers without protective masks, raising fears for their safety. The passengers will spend the next two weeks at nurses’ accommodation next to Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral, undergoing regular checks for the highly contagious virus.
Coach drivers who took those evacuated from Wuhan to their quarantine location on the Wirral will also spend 14 days in isolation themselves. They were asked to drive those brought back from China without any masks or specialist clothing – and will now take a period of paid leave away from others.
A spokesman for Horseman Coaches said their staff had been reassured by Government officials that they did not need to wear masks for the 180-mile journey because passengers had been quarantined for eight days in China and only allowed on the flight because they were clear of any symptoms.
However, the Department of Health rubbished the eight- day claim and said no protective gear was required because the risk to drivers was ‘very low.’
The drivers will not be formally quarantined but have been advised to ‘self-isolate’ at home for the next 14 days as a precaution and their vehicles will also be deep-cleaned before being allowed back into service in a fortnight.
The Mail understands that the pilot and crew on the flight from Wuhan province were also not instructed to wear masks and it was unclear last night whether they had also been told to self-quarantine.
The Ministry of Defence insisted that all Government employees and military personnel who had come into close contact with passengers would be put into supported isolation.
The Department of Health also explained that each of the seven coaches had one medic – dressed in specialist protective gear – onboard in the unlikely event any passengers developed symptoms during the journey.
Passengers on the flight revealed crew had tried to keep them at least 6ft from each other to avoid cross-contamination.
But some evacuees were seen shaking hands with staff on the tarmac at Brize Norton.
Patrick Graham, who was onboard, shared footage of the plane touching down and joked with his social media followers: ‘The infected are coming.’ He also shared a screenshot of a report detailing confirmation of the UK’s first two cases of the virus and wrote: ‘Please don’t blame us … we have only just landed.’
Passengers on the flight were served chicken tikka masala.
Matt Raw made the flight at short notice, after initially being told that his Chinese wife, Ying, who has a visitor visa for the UK, would not be allowed to travel.
When the Chinese authorities eased the restrictions, Mr Raw was able to travel with his wife and 75-year-old mother, Hazel. He said the trip was like any normal plane journey.
He said: ‘It’s maybe not the best quality aeroplane food that I’ve had, but certainly this is probably one of the best meals of my life – we’re on our way home.’
Speaking to ITV before take-off, he said: ‘It is proving to be a really, really taxing job to get all the passengers on board. They are struggling with… we don’t have names,
we have numbers. So they are trying to correspond the names to the numbers, the ticket numbers, to get everybody on board and in the right seat.’
Other passengers described the chaos of getting to the airport at short notice and being forced to leave loved ones behind.
Speaking to the BBC after the flight touched down, newlywed Ben Williams, whose Chinese wife had stayed behind, said: ‘We are just happy to get on a coach to our final destination for an extended vacation.’
Referring to the 14- day quarantine, he added: ‘I think I’ll be all right. As long as I can get some exercise. It’s good to be back, but I also miss China as well. Sadly we came to the decision for her [my new wife] to stay behind because of the short notice they gave us for the flight. They did tell us very much lastminute that she would be allowed on the flight but by the time they told us, we had nothing arranged.
‘Hopefully, it’s less than a few months [before I see her again] but we’ve been in a long distance relationship from the UK to Brazil for the last two years so a couple of months is nothing.’
He continued: ‘Everyone is trying their best to keep clean and ensure the wellbeing of everyone around them. I was in self-isolation in China. With a Chinese family, enjoying Chinese New Year indoors, watching TV. Enjoying sunshine on the roof of the apartment.’