Coronavirus: 135 Britons from quarantined Grand Princess ship flying back to UK
Thousands of international passengers are being flown home after they were finally allowed off the ship .
Wednesday 11 March 2020 10:51, UK
More than 130 UK passengers from the quarantined cruise ship Grand Princess are on a flight back to Britain, the Foreign Office has said.
Travel has been arranged from Birmingham Airport to their homes and they will be required to self-isolate for 14 days.
The plane left California at 6.15am UK time and is due to land early on Wednesday evening.
The Grand Princess - carrying about 3,500 passengers and crew - was allowed to dock in Oakland on Monday after being stranded off the coast for days.
At least 21 people on board had tested positive for COVID-19, the illness cause by the coronavirus.
A Foreign Office spokesperson said 135 British nationals and their dependants were on the flight.
"The safety, health and welfare of British nationals is always our top priority, and we have been working tirelessly with the US authorities to ensure all British nationals who wished to return could do so," said the spokesperson.
Americans from the ship will go through quarantine at military bases in California, Texas and Georgia. Other foreign nationals will also be flown home.
Nineteen of the 1,100 crew also tested positive and will be isolated and treated on board.
Several people - including a British man - died when another ship owned by Princess Cruises was quarantined off Japan last month.
Infections in the UK rose 54 to 382 on Tuesday. A sixth person also died from the virus.
Europe's battle against the outbreak is centred in Italy where the whole country has been placed on lockdown after more than 10,000 cases and 631 deaths.
China - where the virus originated last year- appears to be bringing the situation under control after it also locked down large areas.
It reported just 24 new cases on Wednesday, compared with thousands each day last month.
In other coronavirus developments:
- Nadine Dorries becomes first UK MP to test positive
- Bank of England cuts interest rates from 0.75% to 0.25%
- NHS in England to "ramp up" testing facilities so 10,000 tests can be done each day
- Manchester City's game against Arsenal postponed and players self-isolating
- UN weather agency says decreased energy use due to coronavirus improving air quality in China