Coronavirus fury at why British Wuhan evacuees are being driven 180 MILES across UK to Merseyside
FURIOUS residents in the Wirral have today slammed the decision to drive British Wuhan evacuees 180 miles across the UK and begged to know: “Why are they coming here?”
More than 80 Brits on an evacuation flight from Wuhan landed at the Brize Norton RAF base in Oxfordshire this afternoon.
They will then board coaches to Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside where they will be quarantined for 14 days.
Their arrival on British soil comes as health bosses today confirmed that two members of the same family had tested positive for the killer virus in the UK.
The group will be housed in an NHS staff accommodation block with access to the internet so they can contact loved ones.
Anyone with suspicious symptoms will be driven 10 miles east to the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen Hospital, which has a high-level infectious diseases unit.
What we know about coronavirus so far…
- The deadly virus today hit Britain as TWO patients were confirmed to be infected
- The global death toll has reached 213 with more than 9,000 cases – surpassing SARS infection in China
- The World Health Organisation has declared the outbreak a global health emergency on an unprecedented scale
- The Foreign Office warned against “all but essential travel” to the country because of the virus outbreak
- British Airways suspended all flights to and from mainland China
- The first human-to-human transmissions in people who haven’t been to China have been reported
Three other hospitals have the same units – the Royal Free in London, Newcastle Hospital and Guy’s and St Thomas’ in London – prompting questions from concerned people living in the North West.
Jane Godman wrote online: “Decision to have a coronavirus quarantine centre at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral is bizarre.
“One of the busiest hospitals in the North West, with a maternity unit, in a built-up area, 170 miles from where the Wuhan plane lands. Who decided this and why?”
Phillip Cunnington, from nearby Newton-le-Willows, added: “Oh great, Wirral’s in the news, you don’t often see that, so often overshadowed by Liverpool, it’d be great to see it get some positive pub… Oh.”
Why are they coming here??? Keep them there until they are clear!!!!
Furious local
Another person added: “Why are they coming here??? Keep them there until they are clear!!!!”
Brit Ben Kavanagh posted selfies at the airport before leaving, showing he was wearing a face mask in an attempt to stop the deadly droplets.
After the British passengers disembark at Brize Norton, the flight will continue to Spain, where EU countries will process the non-British evacuees.
Labour MP for Wirral South Alison McGovern said she was not made aware of the decision to bring people to her constituency.
She wrote on Twitter: “No. No one has informed me. Awaiting a call.
“Will be asking Dept for Health to make sure that those being brought to Wirral be made as comfortable as possible.
“Know my constituents will feel for them and will back our brilliant NHS staff to do everything necessary to help.”
Janelle Holmes, chief executive of Wirral University Hospital, sent a message to staff on Thursday night, saying: “Around 100 British citizens will be travelling to the UK from China tomorrow.
“We will be welcoming and housing them in the accommodation block at Arrowe Park Hospital.
“Before arrival they will be screened for symptoms. If anyone becomes unwell after arrival they will be treated following appropriate protocols.”
213 DEAD
The flight from Wuhan has been chartered by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and is carrying 83 Britons and 27 non-UK nationals, mostly from EU countries.
The evacuation came after the UK’s four chief medical officers raised the risk level of the illness from low to moderate and the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared an international public health emergency.
Chinese health officials said on Friday morning the death toll in the country from the virus had risen to 213, up from 170 a day earlier, with the number of known cases rising from 7,711 to 9,692.
No deaths have occurred outside China, although 82 cases have been confirmed across 18 countries.
One of the busiest hospitals in the North West, with a maternity unit, in a built up area, 170 miles from where the Wuhan plane lands. Who decided this and why?
Jane Godman
The WHO’s announcement led Virgin Atlantic to suspend its flights between the UK and China for two weeks starting on Saturday.
British Airways on Thursday extended its suspension of China flights until Monday.
The British passengers on the evacuation flight – 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.
Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “It’s welcome news that our evacuation flight has now left Wuhan
“We know how distressing the situation has been for those waiting to leave. We have been working round the clock to clear the way for a safe departure.
“The welfare of those trapped and public safety have been our overriding priorities.”
On Thursday evening, WHO declared coronavirus as an international public health emergency due to fears of the virus spreading to countries with weaker health infrastructure.
After British Airways extended its China flights suspension until Monday, Virgin Atlantic released a statement late on Thursday night saying its China services would cease for a fortnight after the arrival of its flight from Shanghai on Saturday.
As of Thursday, 161 people have tested negative for the virus in the UK and 124 people have recovered and have since been discharged from hospital in China.
But today England’s chief medical officer confirmed that two people from the same family had tested positive and are receiving specialist NHS care.
Where did coronavirus start? From bats to snakes - the theories on deadly virus' origins
The killer coronavirus was spread from bats to snakes to humans, experts have claimed.
An outbreak of the virus is understood to have started at an open air fish market in the Chinese city of Wuhan – which has since been put in lockdown after 25 people died and more than 600 people were infected globally.
A new study published in the China Science Bulletin this week claimed that the new coronavirus shared a strain of virus found in bats.
Previous deadly outbreaks of SARS and Ebola were also believed to have originated in the flying mammal.
Experts had thought the new virus wasn’t capable of causing an epidemic as serious as those outbreaks because its genes were different.
But this latest research appeared to prove otherwise – as scientists scrabble to produce a vaccine.
In a statement, the researchers said: “The Wuhan coronavirus’ natural host could be bats … but between bats and humans there may be an unknown intermediate.”
Meanwhile, scientists at Peking University also claim that the deadly virus was passed to humans from bats – but say it was through a mutation in snakes.
The researchers said that the new strain is made up of a combination of one that affects bats and another unknown coronavirus.
They believe that combined genetic material from both bats and this unknown strain picked up a protein that allows viruses bind to certain host cells – including those of humans.
After analysing the genes of the strains the team found that snakes were susceptible to the most similar version of the coronavirus.
It meant that they likely provided a “reservoir” for the viral strain to grow stronger and replicate.
Snakes are sold at the Huanan Seafood Market in central Wuhan and may have jumped to other animals before passing to humans, they claim.
But a senior researcher at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, who asked not to be named, said the findings should be treated with caution.
He told the : “It is based on calculation by a computer model.
“Whether it will match what happens in real life is inconclusive.
“The binding protein is important, but it is just one of the many things under investigation. There may be other proteins involved.”
The expert believes that the new strain was an RNA virus, meaning that its mutation speed was 100 times faster than that of a DNA virus such as smallpox.