'The infected are coming' Wuhan evacuees share journey home on Instagram
by Zoe DrewettBritish nationals evacuated out of coronavirus-hit city Wuhan on an emergency flight to the UK documented their journey home on social media – with one joking ‘the infected are coming’.
A total of 83 Britons and 27 foreign nationals arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at around 1.30pm today, hours after the first two cases of coronavirus were confirmed in England.
They will now be taken by coach to Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside, to spend 14 days in quarantine in an NHS staff accommodation block.
Many of the foreign nationals – mostly EU citizens – will stay on the plane which will now be flown to Spain.
One of those on board, Patrick Graham, posted video to his public Instagram page charting his journey from Wuhan to the military base.
In one clip, now deleted, he was seen wearing a face mask and filming out of the Wamos plane window with the caption ‘The infected are coming’.
He earlier posted a video of a crying emoji face with the caption: ‘Waiting to leave Wuhan.’
Not all UK citizens who wanted to leave Wuhan were on the FCO-chartered Boeing 747 jet, with some finding it ‘impossible’ to make it to the airport on time after the Foreign Office gave them just two hours notice.
The plane hit the tarmac after the death toll in China rose to 213 with 10,000 cases of the virus confirmed across the country.
Passengers – many families with young children – were met by paramedics wearing face masks but not the hazmat suits worn by specialists treating those infected with the killer virus.
The government previously said that anybody showing any sign of coronavirus infection would not be allowed to leave Wuhan.
NHS staff were pictured preparing for the plane’s arrival, with several ambulances and seven coaches lining the roads outside the RAF base this morning.
Those landing will be checked out by medical staff before taking a five-hour coach journey to the Wirral.
A daughter of one of the people on board the 11-hour flight told Sky News she was breathing a big sigh of relief that her parent was finally back in the UK.
Before the evacuation flight left Wuhan at 9.45am local time on Friday, passengers were told they had to sign a contract agreeing to isolation and undergo temperature checks before they could board.
What is the coronavirus and where did it start?
Coronaviruses are a family of diseases which include the common cold and the virus which caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people around the world.
The virus causing concern now is a new strain which has made the jump from animals to people.
It causes flu-like symptoms and can make it hard for people to breathe, causing viral pneumonia in severe cases.
Over 100 people worldwide have now died after contracting the illness.
The virus is more likely to progress into a severe illness or prove fatal among older patients or those with weakened immune systems.
As it is a viral illness, antibiotics will not help and there is no known cure or vaccine.
What are the symptoms of the virus? .
The Foreign Office has warned against all but essential travel to mainland China, and British Airways has subsequently suspended flights there.
They have not advised against travel to Thailand and Japan, which have both seen cases of the virus, but warned there are enhanced quarantine procedures at entry points to Japan such as airports and ports.
If you’re booked onto a flight with BA and are scheduled to fly between January 26 – February 23, you can request a refund.
In order to do this, get in touch with them directly through the BA website.
They also offer the option to rebook to the same destination, although it is not known when flights to mainland China will resume.
Can I get a refund on my BA flights?
Is it safe to travel to Thailand?
Is it safe to travel to Japan as the coronavirus spreads?
To avoid the illness, take usual hygiene precautions, such as using a tissue to cover coughs and sneezes, and making sure to wash your hands.
Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth after touching things like poles on public transport and avoid close contact with people suffering an acute respiratory infection.
You should also avoid unprotected contact with wild or farm animals.
So far, no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK.
Almost 100 people have been tested for it here, with all of the tests coming back negative.
How many people in the UK have it?
The virus originated in the city of Wuhan in China, where it is believed to have made the jump from animals to people at a seafood market.
Wuhan is the capital of China’s Hubei province, a landlocked province in central China.
It is built along the Yangtze river, and is around 500 miles west of Shanghai and 690 miles north of Hong Kong.
It is the largest and most populous city in central China, although estimates over its population vary.