Half of British cruise ship passengers not on flight
Majority of the 78 UK nationals on the Diamond Princess not returning on Japan evacuation plane
MOST of the 78 British holiday-makers on board the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess cruise ship were not on the evacuation flight home, the Foreign Office has confirmed.
In the early hours of this morning, an aircraft destined for Wiltshire left Japan, but only around 35 Britons, and a small number of European nationals were on board.
The Daily Telegraph understands that British members of the crew have remained on the cruise ship, while some nationals who live overseas did not want to return to Britain.
Other passengers were among at least 630 people on the liner who tested positive for coronavirus – the largest cluster of cases outside China – and have stayed in Japan to undergo treatment.
Those remaining in Tokyo include David and Sally Abel, the British pensioners who have gathered a substantial following online after posting regular social media updates of their time trapped in quarantine.
Mr Abel posted photos of him and his wife smiling in hospital on Facebook, after they were both confirmed to have Covid-19.
“Thinking of all the Brits flying to UK tomorrow. Here I am having given 10 files of blood, ECG (EKG) and radiogram,” Mr Abel wrote.
British officials also conducted health screenings before nationals boarded the chartered flight, which is due to land at Boscombe Down, a Ministry of Defence base in Wiltshire, at some point this morning, despite a delayed departure.
Passengers on board were required to sign agreements before take-off stating that they would remain in isolation at Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral for 14 days.
Alan Steele, who was on his honeymoon aboard the ship with his wife Wendy, joked that the couple were off to “Butlins the Wirral” in a Facebook post after the pair had tested negative for Covid-19. The evacuation comes as the NHS announced plans to start offering “home testing” for suspected coronavirus infections.
NHS trusts in London have begun piloting the approach, with nurses and paramedics sent to the homes of those with suspected coronavirus, in a bid to reduce pressures on ambulance trusts and hospitals.
Health officials said the policy would be expanded more widely across the rest of the country in coming weeks.
Prof Keith Willett, NHS strategic incident director for coronavirus, added that the approach would allow “people to stay at home rather than having to travel, which is safer for you and your family and limits the spread of infection”.
Meanwhile, infectious disease experts at Imperial College, London warned that more cases of coronavirus are likely to emerge outside of China.
In a study published yesterday, the team used mathematical modelling to estimate that two thirds of Covid-19 cases which have been exported from mainland China are spreading undetected, leaving sources of human-tohuman transmission unchecked.
Jonathan Ball, professor of molecular virology at the University of Nottingham, said that the findings were unsurprising.
“We should start to accept that this outbreak will be incredibly difficult to control using standard public health measures, such as isolation of cases and contact tracing,” he said.
“We are likely to see continued spread around the world, and the eventual emergence of what will be the fifth commonly circulating human coronavirus infection.”