Virus farce as Britons ‘go missing’ from ship

HALF the British passengers on a coronavirus-hit cruise ship failed to board the longawaited evacuation flight home last night.

Efforts to repatriate the 78 UK citizens on the Diamond Princess descended into farce after the Foreign Office appeared to lose track of some of them.

Only 35 were on the flight back to Britain, which was due to land this morning, while four Britons who had tested positive remained in hospital in Japan.

A handful of family members are thought to have refused the evacuation to stay with loved ones.

Other Britons are believed to have disembarked from the ship of their own accord after becoming increasingly frustrated at the Government’s ‘slow’ repatriation effort.

After two weeks trapped in cabins, they were finally free to leave on Wednesday if they tested negative.

Many are thought to have stayed in Japan, either to travel or to delay having to go through another compulsory 14 days in quarantine on the Wirral.

Other British citizens had already been airlifted to other countries, many of which successfully organised evacuation flights several days before the UK’s repatriation effort, which has been hit by delays. Some of these were expats who live in Hong Kong, and were flown back two days ago.

One of the stricken passengers, Alan Steele, accused ministers of ‘treating us badly’. He said passengers felt ‘sickened’ at the prospect of staying at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, where the 35 Britons on the flight will be taken today.

At least 634 out of 3,700 passengers on the Diamond Princess and crew have tested positive for the virus during the two weeks it has been trapped in Yokohama, Japan.

More than 840 passengers from the US, Australia, Canada, South Korea and Hong Kong were airlifted home this week.

But yesterday at last, dozens finally began trickling off the ship for oneto-one medical examinations before boarding the plane.

The 35 British passengers were joined on board by Government medics and a handful of EU citizens.

Elaine Spencer, from Kent, said she was ‘relieved’ to be coming home but criticised the ‘slow’ Foreign Office response.

China has reported 75,567 cases including 2,239 deaths. Outside China 1,152 cases of the virus have been confirmed in 26 countries and there have been eight deaths.

■ The NHS has begun home-testing those with suspected coronavirus.

Nurses and paramedics will visit people in their homes rather than having them travel to hospital.

The NHS has tested 5,885 patients in Britain, although the number of confirmed cases remains at nine.