Help us, please beg Britons in lockdown at hotel from hell
SOME guests chose to stay in their rooms. Others put on face masks and decided to relax by the hotel’s pool.
The two approaches were just one sign of the confusion and frustration facing a group of British holidaymakers being contained in a Tenerife hotel for two weeks.
Frustrated guests pleaded with Boris Johnson to intervene yesterday and said they were desperate to return home amid a chaotic attempt to control corona virus from spreading within the Costa Adeje Palace Hotel.
At least 160 Britons – including 12 Scots – have been holed up in the four-star resort after the Spanish authorities padlocked its doors when four guests from Italy tested positive.
Yesterday they told of the ‘absolutely awful’ situation and said they had been given conflicting information about how long the enforced stay would last.
And, as the Foreign Office began contacting them last night telling them they must remain at the hotel until March 10, some complained that staying put placed them at increased risk.
Nurses Karen McQuade and Phoebe Jardine, from Blantyre, Lanarkshire, said they had been due to return to work this week.
They were allowed to leave their rooms yesterday – after being confined to them on Tuesday – but Miss McQuade said guests had been told ‘to wear a mask in the foyer’ and when going for meals. They did not have to wear them when outside, she said.
Another guest, Mandy Davis, on holiday with her husband Roger, said: ‘Nobody knows what the right thing to do is because nobody’s had this virus before. Come and rescue us please, Boris.
Let’s get the hell out of here.’
Rosie Mitford, who is on holiday with her father and brother, arrived at the hotel on Monday when the four Italians who tested positive had already left. The 18year-old nursing student said: ‘We want to come home now. We don’t see the point of staying here for two weeks when none of us have symptoms and then isolating when we get back.’
The family were hoping for a reprieve last night when authorities on the Canary Islands said more than 100 recent arrivals could be allowed to go home.
Spanish officials have begun tracking down guests who may have come into contact with the infected quartet before returning to their homes across Europe.
Guests holed up at the 500room hotel with babies described how they had unsuccessfully pleaded for suitable food, while being left without essential products such as nappies. In the UK, family members said they were
‘Everyone is out, spreading the virus’
concerned about the welfare of elderly relatives at the property.
Guests were initially told to ‘stay calm’ and stay in their rooms yesterday morning as medical teams in protective suits handed out face masks and thermometers, then carried out medical checks. Guests have been told to take their temperature twice a day.
The curfew was dropped shortly afterwards and more than 260 guests were seen sun-lounging outside, some in face masks, while others took to the swimming pools.
After more than 24 hours without hot food, the hotel provided a lunch buffet yesterday, and free champagne. Despite the curfew being relaxed, some guests decided to remain in their rooms and had breakfast brought to them. Lara Pennington, 45, from Manchester, who is with her two sons and in-laws, said: ‘It’s scary – everyone is out, in the pool, spreading the virus.’
It has been reported that between 600 and 800 guests from 25 countries are at the hotel in the south-west of the island.
Because containment measures affect guests’ liberty, a local judge will rule each day on whether to allow some to leave.
A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘Our staff are in close contact with the hotel management and the Spanish authorities and have written to all British guests, and are in touch with anyone identified as vulnerable or in need.’