The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
TV doctor blasts hotel quarantine measures as Britons remain stuck
TV doctor Hilary Jones has blasted quarantine measures at a coronavirushit Tenerife hotel as the Foreign Office said it was keeping the situation under review.
Some 168 Britons are among hundreds of guests being kept at the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace in the south-west of the Spanish island after at least four guests, including an Italian doctor, tested positive for coronavirus.
A British man, who did not wish to be named, told the PA news agency the hotel was unable to enforce quarantine measures and nobody felt safe.
Another said an aqua gym class was held yesterday in the hotel pool.
All of those on site were initially told to stay in their rooms but local authorities have now said people without symptoms can move around the hotel, including to the pool and bar.
This has raised fears the virus will spread rapidly among the guests, with social media photos showing people not wearing face masks and sharing buffet meals.
Steve McHardy, 53, an
Staff clean the pool at the H10 Costa Adeje Palace estate agent from Kinross, and his wife Susan, also 53, are among those stuck in the hotel.
Mrs McHardy told Dr Jones during ITV’s Lorraine that they have now been told they will need to stay in Tenerife for at least 14 days.
She added: “We didn’t go out in the beginning but yesterday we went to reception – you are allowed to go out with your masks on.
“At the beginning, we were getting food parcels put to our rooms, but now the only food you can get is at the restaurant, so we have to go out now.”
Dr Jones responded to the couple and criticised the isolation measure at the hotel.
He said if somebody was diagnosed on the last day of the 14-day quarantine, the 14-day period would need to start again.
He added: “At the moment, what’s happening in that hotel is not selfisolation because people are sunbathing round the pool, going to the restaurant – you are in a mass quarantine together.”