Bring them home!
After British pair on stranded cruise ship test positive for coronavirus, their furious son urges ministers to...
THE son of a British couple who have tested positive for coronavirus after nearly two weeks on a quarantined cruise ship has slammed the Government’s ‘appalling’ response.
Two days after the US flew more than 300 of its citizens home from the Diamond Princess – marooned in Yokohama, Japan – the number of infections on board passed 500.
UK officials have only just confirmed that repatriation of the ship’s Britons will take place before Friday – but only for those who are not infected.
Pensioners David and Sally Abel have been sharing their plight with thousands via a series of video messages uploaded online from their cabin.
But communication ended abruptly yesterday following a brief post from 73-year- old passenger Mr Abel saying they had ‘proved positive’ for the virus and were being taken to hospital.
Yesterday, the couple’s son Stephen appealed to the Foreign Office to ‘go and get them’.
He revealed his parents, who live in Northamptonshire, had received more communication from the authorities in Canada and the US during their ordeal than their counterparts in London.
‘They’ve completely left them alone, in the dark,’ he told ITV News. ‘It’s very, very disappointing that other countries are really taking care of their own and our country’s just not taking care of my Mum and Dad and the other Brits on that boat.’ He added that Boris Johnson’s priorities may be ‘on HS2 instead’.
Asked about the Government’s treatment of his parents, Mr Abel told BBC Breakfast it had been ‘appalling’, saying they were ‘feeling very unloved’. He also told ITV’s This Morning the UK authorities should ‘still go and get them’. He said: ‘I know they tested positive but... whatever they’re going to be doing in Japan, why can’t that happen here in the UK where my Dad can get the right kind of food, all the right treatments?’ His father is an insulindependent type 2 diabetic.
There are 74 British passengers on board. Yesterday, a Downing
Street spokesman confirmed that repatriation of the remaining Britons on the ship who don’t have the virus will take place within the next 48 to 72 hours.
But this won’t include the Abels or any others who have tested positive – they will be taken to a hospital in Yokohama.
Figures from Japanese authorities show that 542 out of the 3,700 original passengers and crew have been infected – raising concerns that the ship’s efforts to contain the outbreak have been totally ineffective.
Professor John Oxford, an expert in virology at Queen Mary University of London, said: ‘Cruise ships are very prone to outbreaks of common cold and the vomiting virus, norovirus. The ships are overcrowded and... hygiene levels can slip. I suspect also that the passengers have not been properly quarantined since they have gone through a virus incubation time.’
The Foreign Office would not confirm how many Britons on board had the virus but the Mail is aware of at least six cases including the Abels and 58-year- old honeymooner Alan Steele.
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