UK virus evacuees leave quarantine
EVACUEES released from a two-week coronavirus quarantine centre have described the experience as “hard”, but praised staff for looking after them.
More than 100 people flown out of the Chinese city at the centre of the outbreak left a UK training centre yesterday for the first time in 14 days.
All 118 people staying at the Kents Hill Park training and conference centre in Milton Keynes tested negative for the virus.
One man, who was among guests holding backpacks and suitcases pictured getting taxis, said it was a “fantastic” feeling to be able to go home.
The group, who were brought back to Britain earlier this month on a repatriation flight from Wuhan, included around 10 children and a family of four.
Paul Walkinshaw, from Manchester, left with his wife Lihong, having been on holiday visiting her parents in the city of Shiyan for Chinese New Year when family members contacted them and told them about the virus outbreak.
Speaking to reporters as he exited the centre on Sunday morning, he said: “It feels fantastic to leave, although it feels weird not having to wear a mask and gloves in public. The first 48 hours were hard when we were confined to our rooms, after that it was fine.”
The 39-year-old praised “friendly” staff and the local community for their support and said he was looking forward to sleeping in his own bed again.
“The first thing I’m going to do when I get home is sleep in my own bed.”
One family with a young toddler, who did not want to be named, also praised staff at the centre.
They told the PA news agency: “The staff were really nice and really helpful. They got us lots of things. We live in the UK but it hasn’t put us off going back to Wuhan.”
The training and conference centre has been professionally cleaned and will be back to business as usual from next week, NHS England said.
In a bid to help stop the spread of the virus in the UK, the health service is piloting home testing for where NHS staff, including nurses and paramedics, will visit people in their own homes.
Meanwhile, the death toll in mainland China from the virus has risen to more than 2,400, Chinese health authorities said.
At the same time, South Korea’s president has put the country on its highest alert for infectious diseases, and said officials should take “unprecedented, powerful” steps to fight the viral outbreak.
President Moon Jae-in said the outbreak has reached a “crucial watershed” and that the “next few days will be a very important critical moment”.
He made the comments at the start of a government meeting as authorities reported 123 more cases yesterday, raising the total to 556 with five deaths. The Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said 113 of the 123 new cases came from the fourth-largest city of Daegu.