Coronavirus: What will happen to the British people being quarantined?

It is understood the British passengers will be taken to an NHS facility on the Wirral to be quarantined for 14 days.

Dozens of British people who have arrived in the UK after being evacuated from Wuhan in China will be placed into quarantine for two weeks on Friday.

A Foreign Office-chartered plane carrying 83 Britons and 27 foreign nationals landed at the Brize Norton RAF base in Oxfordshire in the afternoon.

The British passengers left the base in coaches in a convoy with ambulances and a police escort.

It is understood the passengers will go to an NHS facility in Wirral for a 14-day quarantine.

On Friday afternoon staff at Arrowe Park Hospital were seen preparing to house those evacuated in two connecting accommodation blocks, as barriers were put up outside the building.

Staff were seen unloading cots and baby baths into the facility, suggesting families with small children may be kept in isolation.

Earlier on Friday, trolleys containing PlayStations, Xboxes and children’s toys, including toys for toddlers, were seen being wheeled into the premises.

Evacuation flight passengers – who have mainly been in Wuhan and the surrounding Hubei province – had to sign a contract agreeing to isolation before they could board the flight, and underwent temperature checks.

Any families will be able to stay together and there will be no charge for the accommodation. NHS staff who were asked to leave the blocks are being housed in hotels and apartments paid for by NHS England.

It is understood that those quarantined will be given fully furnished rooms, food and laundry facilities, while kitchens are available if people wish to self-cater.

In a statement, Janelle Holmes, chief executive at Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said staff working in the hospital would at no time have any contact with those in isolation.

She said: “All services within our hospital will continue to run as usual, including emergency services, outpatients and planned surgery. If you have an appointment, or a procedure planned at Arrowe Park, please attend as normal.”

A team of medical staff, who will wear protective suits, will closely monitor their condition.

Anyone with suspicious symptoms will be taken to the nearby Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospital, which has a high-level infectious diseases unit.

The quarantine period will give medics time to see if any of the group develop symptoms or test positive for the virus.

They are being isolated for two weeks because this is the maximum time it is thought to take for symptoms to emerge if a person has been infected.

There has been speculation over whether the virus can be transmitted by people showing no symptoms.

Unite, which has more than 1,000 members at the trust, met with management on Friday lunchtime.

The union’s regional officer Derek Jones said the union was “satisfied that this emergency is being dealt with in a professional manner” but added it would be monitoring the situation to ensure the welfare of NHS staff.