(Image: Ben Birchall/PA Wire)
Flight carrying Brits back to UK from Wuhan has touched down at RAF base
More than 80 Brits who were staying in the region of China where coronavirus originated have been brought back to the UK
by Fionnula Hainey, https://www.facebook.com/FionnulaMEN/A flight carrying 83 British citizens has arrived in the UK from Wuhan, where the deadly coronavirus outbreak originated.
The chartered passenger plane touched down at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire shortly before 2pm this afternoon.
It will continue onto Spain, where it will drop off the remaining 27 passengers, who are all non-UK nationals.
Each of the passengers had to sign a contract agreeing to isolation before they could board the flight.
(Image: Andrew Matthews/PA Wire)
Deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries said all passengers had undergone screening before boarding the plane and were subject to ongoing questioning and continuous risk assessment during the journey.
The 83 Brits will now be taken by coach to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, where they will remain in quarantine for 14 days.
The patients will be given fully-furnished rooms inside a staff accommodation block and will have internet access and laundry facilities
(Image: Leon Neal/Getty Images)
A team of medical staff will be there to closely monitor their condition and anyone with suspicious symptoms will be taken to the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospital.
Earlier today, health officials confirmed the first two cases of coronavirus in the UK.
Two people from the same family are being treated at a specialist centre in Newcastle.
An outbreak investigation team has been formed to trace anyone who has been in contact with the pair to prevent onward transmission.
The Department for Health has said the two cases confirmed today are the only positive results from over 170 tests on people in the UK so far.
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