Locals stoical about quarantine hotel

RESIDENTS CLOSE to a hotel used to isolate around 150 people amid fears of coronavirus have said they are not concerned about the quarantine.

Passengers of a second evacuation flight arrived in the UK yesterday after they were evacuated from the virus-hit Chinese city of Wuhan.

Around 150 people were brought to the Kents Hill Park hotel and conference centre in Milton Keynes, close to the campus of the Open University in the east of the town.

After the passengers arrived shortly after 10am, residents of the nearby Kents Hill estate said they were not concerned about the quarantine and saw the need for it.

The decision to host the passengers in Milton Keynes has attracted criticism on local Facebook pages and the hyper-local social media site Nextdoor.

However 35-year-old Katrina, who lives on the nearest residential road to the hotel, said: “It just seems like a sensible thing to do, really. If it’s going to happen it’s going to happen, and I think people are taking it out of proportion really. We’re not getting all the facts and that’s helping to spread confusion and panic.”

Around the three joined buildings that make up Kents Hill Park, temporary wire fencing can be seen.

Security officers will also patrol the site while the quarantine is under way, which will last a minimum of 14 days. Staff in blue scrubs, gloves and masks were seen welcoming passengers – who will be regularly tested for any signs of the virus – on to the premises yesterday.

PICTURES: PA RETURN: Members of staff wait outside a hotel in Milton Keynes, where a group of 150 people will be quarantined. The Britons and European nationals arrived on a plane at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, from the Chinese city of Wuhan, and include the man in a mask on a coach to the hotel.