Virus Briton: I’ve never felt less loved by my country
As other nations bring stranded cruise passengers home...
A BRITISH man marooned on a luxury cruise ship with coronavirus yesterday claimed he had ‘never felt less loved by my own country’ as fellow passengers of other nationalities were evacuated home.
Along with almost 80 other Britons, 73-year-old David Abel and his wife Sally have been confined to their cabins on the Diamond Princess for over ten days as it languishes in quarantine off a Japanese port.
The vessel has been hit by more than 350 cases of the virus among the 3,600 passengers and crew.
Last night around 300 American passengers were evacuated from the ship at the port of Yokohama after US officials chartered planes to fly them home where they will go back into quarantine.
But despite officials from Canada and Hong Kong preparing similar rescues for their citizens, there had been no equivalent announcement for UK nationals last night.
Slamming the failure to help them, Mr Abel – who has not been diagnosed with the virus – said they were being ‘ treated like trash’. ‘ Don’t you want the English people home?’ he demanded.
‘I am always proud to be British but this now – it’s gone beyond a joke, I’ve never felt less loved by my own country.’
The Foreign Office is understood to be deliberating over World Health Organisation advice which suggests patients in quarantine shouldn’t be repatriated, in case they import the virus back to the UK. At the same time, officials are weighing up the safety and welfare of the British passengers, many of whom are elderly or have chronic health conditions.
They include Mr Abel, who has Type 1 diabetes and was previously concerned he would fall into a coma if he wasn’t given regular meals.
Their two-week quarantine is meant to end this Wednesday and should this go ahead, Princess Cruises, which owns the Diamond Princess, will then arrange for them to be transported to airports and flown home.
But as there have now been 355 coronavirus cases on the ship – the highest cluster of infections outside China – the Japanese authorities may decide to extend the isolation period for at least two more weeks.
An FCO spokesman said they were ‘ actively considering all options’ and ‘working around the clock to ensure the welfare of the British nationals on board’.
Officials were last night understood to be trying to get the passengers off the boat because they believed the quarantine was not working. Options included a period of isolation in Japan or being flown out.
In a video message from the ship, Mr Abel, from Woodford Halse in Northamptonshire, said: ‘UK Government – don’t you want your country people, British people, home? The message that we are seeing is that you’re closing your borders to us, you want to keep us out. We are literally being treated like trash.’
Mr Abel – who described himself as a ‘staunch Tory’ – said he now had ‘no confidence’ in Boris Johnson. ‘When he just says “keep calm, don’t panic” – I’d like to see you in this situation, mate. I really would,’ he added.
Last night passengers with balconies watched as 11 coaches picked up around 300 American holidaymakers from the dockside.
A US health official said more than 40 Americans on the ship had been infected with coronavirus. While those without the virus will go into quarantine in the US, Anthony Fauci, from the country’s National Institutes for Health, said the infected Americans would be staying in hospitals in Japan.