People traveling back to the UK from coronavirus-affected Italy say that the government is doing virtually nothing to protect them from spreading the virus in Britain.
A couple who flew from Venice to London last night said they had received forms to fill in in case health officials had to track them down if a passenger was diagnosed, but nobody collected the forms.
And half of a family from northern Italy was reportedly told that it was not necessary to isolate themselves, but when one of them fell ill, only two of them were quarantined in a hospital waiting for test results that were ultimately negative.
Travelers’ stories are some of the many people who return from Italy who say they are confused and frustrated by the government’s travel advice.
People are also surprised that they can still continue to travel as normal, without health checks or interrogation at the British border.
The British Foreign Office is now advising anyone returning from Italy to isolate themselves for two weeks in case they contract the corona virus there.
Italy is now the most affected country outside of China – more than 10,000 people have been affected by the disease and at least 631 have died.
Many of the 382 cases in the UK have been among recent visitors to Italy or from people who have caught it in the UK since the outbreak of Italy. A sixth person died in Watford yesterday.
People who flew from Gatwick from Italy to the UK said they were allowed to travel normally – they are now expected to isolate themselves at home for two weeks in case they have contracted the corona virus
British Airways has canceled all its flights to and from Italy due to the corona virus outbreak there (photo, a BA arrival sign at Heathrow Airport)
At least 382 people in the UK have been diagnosed with the corona virus and six have died
Denise Owens, who returned from Venice last night after a vacation with her husband, said there had been signs of precautionary measures, but these were not being implemented.
She told MailOnline: ‘On the plane we all had to fill in forms so that they could follow all passengers if they fell ill.
“I went to hand in mine on the plane, but was told that we had to hand it in at the airport, but there was no one to declare these forms. Nobody was interested. Mine is still in my bag. “
Another family who visited northern Italy in the middle of February said they were told not to isolate themselves when they got home.
DOES THE UK STAND FOR A CORISAVIRUS CRISIS IN ITALIAN STYLE?
The UK could be on its way to a coronavirus crisis like the one that paralyzed Italy, leading experts have warned.
Italy last night put its 60 million people in a lockdown and banned traffic between cities in a drastic attempt to control the outbreak that infected 9,000 people.
But a scientist following the outbreak in the UK said that Britain is following the same route and could end up in a similar situation to Italy within two weeks.
The number of cases in Italy has risen from just three on February 21 to at least 9,172. While in the UK it jumped from nine to 321.
Professor Mark Handley of University College London compared the number of coronavirus infections in Italy in crisis with those in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, the US and Switzerland and discovered that they are growing at the same rate
Silvia Monchelato and her family, who have lived in London for 15 years, returned in the same week that Italy’s unbridled outbreak got out of hand.
They were told by NHS 111 that they did not have to isolate, she told MailOnline, but she and her son were quarantined when he started to feel ill – but her daughter was sent back to school.
Mrs. Monchelato, who is Italian but had both her children in the UK, had been to Veneto, one of the northern Italian regions at the heart of the country’s outbreak, and returned on February 26.
She called an ambulance when her son started having breathing problems.
She said: “When [paramedics] when they arrived they told me to leave with my son and that my daughter went to school.
“They took us to St Mary’s Hospital and kept us in the vehicle for about two hours until a team came to test us for the corona virus.
“After this, with safety, masked medical personnel [came and] took us to the hospital and locked us in for four days until the negative test result arrived.
“What if the test had been positive? My daughter who traveled with us went to school all week, free to infect others.
“The measures that the British government is taking are not logical, consistent or protective at all.”
People in Italy face increasingly difficult journeys to the UK after British Airways and Jet2 announced yesterday that they canceled all flights between the two countries.
Neither Anna De Luca (left) nor Carmine Loru (right) flew from Italy to England yesterday, but said they had not received any information about the new government rule that anyone returning should isolate for two weeks
Retired greengrocer Martin Rudd arrived in Stansted from Pisa yesterday and said he had not been tested, but should now go into self-isolation
Ryanair normally flies until Saturday – with customers in Italy who can fly home before it stops all international flights from the virus affected country until April 8.
EasyJet has canceled most flights in Milan, Venice and Verona, but still flies between other parts of Italy and the UK. The airline said that anyone who has not been contacted can assume that their flight is planned as normal.
The budget airline also flies to England from airports in Bologna, Turin, Livorno, Ancona, Rome, Naples, Bari, Brindisi, Sicily and Sardinia. These services are not affected by cancellations, according to the company’s website.
Vuelling also runs a few flights.
The Italian airline Alitalia has stopped flying from Milan Malpensa and limited flights from Milan Linate to domestic routes only, but it continues to fly internationally from Rome.
The British outbreak started seriously last week when the number of confirmed patients more than doubled from 23 to 51 between Saturday 29 February and Tuesday 3 March.
Government officials have decided not to move on to the second phase of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s coronavirus action plan and to remain in the first phase focused on trying to control and stop the virus.
The number of coronavirus cases confirmed in the UK has risen to 382 and more than 26,000 people have been tested
However, they have admitted that they expect a “significant” outbreak in Britain.
The Deputy Chief Medical Officer of England, Dr. Jenny Harries, predicted that “many thousands of people” would receive COVID-19.
Most people only get a mild illness and do not need medical help, while others can be hospitalized and a small proportion get pneumonia and die.
Dr. Harries told Sky News: ‘We have relatively few cases here at the moment, which is why we are still in the containment phase [the first step of government action plan].
“It is clear that we will have significant numbers in a way that the country is not used to.
‘This is the kind of thing that we are professionally trained for and that we rarely see, almost in a professional life.
“Large numbers of the population will be infected because it is a naive population, no one currently has antibodies against this virus.
“We will see many thousands of people who are infected with coronavirus, which is what we see in other countries and the most important thing for us is to make sure we control those infections.”
Engineer Anna De Luca, 30, who lives in Brighton and arrived in Gatwick yesterday, said: “There were no checks at all. So I said I’ll take some responsibility and wear the mask – even if it’s useless.
“But even in Naples they did a check and told us to stay one meter from the next person. And then on the plane there was nothing. We have not received any information.
“I just asked a man who worked here, he said maybe you should call 111, but there were no checks at all.”
A woman is depicted with a face mask on the London Underground. More than 50 coronavirus cases have been diagnosed in London
Women with face masks are in central London today. Officials have said that masks are unlikely to protect against the COVID-19 virus, which is small enough to pass through the material
Carmine Loru, 39, who arrived at Gatwick on a flight from Florence, said he had received no information about self-isolation.
Mr. Loru, whose family lives in Florence, said: “There is a lot of paranoia in Italy, but nobody controls us here.
‘I read on the BBC that I would have to stay at home for 14 days, but nobody said anything about that on the plane. In Florence they told us nothing about what to do in London. ”
Retired greengrocer Martin Rudd claimed that the public hand sanitizer pumps at Stansted Airport were empty and that there was no current health advice when he arrived in Pisa in the arrivals hall yesterday.
The 64-year-old said: “I am in a high-risk group – I am diabetic and I have a triple bypass – so I take precautions.
‘The hand disinfection pumps are empty and the only information is on a notice board in the arrival hall. There is nobody who checks whether people feel unwell or if someone measures the temperature. “
Rudd, who was on holiday in northern Italy but outside the original ‘Red Zone’ with his partner Linda Collis, booked an earlier flight after the Italian government had announced a national lock-up.
He said: “My son called us last night warned that travel restrictions were changing, so I booked an earlier flight, so we came home this morning. In fact, the plane was almost empty. About 15 people were on the flight. “
Rudd said he was taking a taxi home and staying within the required 14 days in accordance with the latest advice from Public Health England.
He said: ‘I have grandchildren, so I don’t want to infect them. I’m well prepared. I have a lot of food, everything I need.
“I bought a load of hand sanitizer before we left, I actually brought six bottles to Italy and I cleaned my hands after I touched something.”
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