British passengers and crew on the cruise ship at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak are set to be taken to the same hospital used to quarantine evacuees from Wuhan during the Covid pandemic.
The group will isolate at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral, Merseyside, after being flown back to the UK from Tenerife, according to Sky News.
The site became known as ‘Camp Corona’ in 2020 when Britons evacuated from China at the start of the coronavirus outbreak were held there in quarantine.
A letter from the chief executive of Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust confirmed the hospital had been asked to receive the passengers on Sunday.
Chief executive Janelle Holmes said the group would be housed in the accommodation block on the Arrowe Park site ‘to provide them with a safe place for their isolation period’.
She added the hospital had been chosen because of how it had previously ‘responded to and supported the repatriation of British nationals from Wuhan and the Diamond Princess prior to the COVID-19 pandemic’.
Any individual who becomes unwell after arriving in the UK will be transferred to another facility, she said.
Pictured: A woman in a protective suit on a coach containing British citizens flown out of Wuhan arrives at Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral during the Covid pandemic in 2020
Pictured: A block of apartments in Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral, where British citizens flown out of Wuhan following the outbreak of the coronavirus were quarantined
An aerial view of an ambulance boat carrying crew members wearing hazmat suits as they approach the pilot door on the starboard side of the cruise ship MV Hondius
There are currently 22 British citizens still on board the vessel, including 19 passengers and three crew members.
The ship is expected to dock in Tenerife in the Canary Islands early tomorrow morning, with the Spanish government saying Britain had confirmed plans to send a repatriation flight.
None of the passengers currently on board are showing symptoms of hantavirus, according to the head of the World Health Organisation.
Arrowe Park Hospital previously housed dozens of Britons evacuated from Wuhan at the beginning of the Covid pandemic in January 2020.
Five coaches carrying 83 British nationals escorted by police motorbikes arrived at the Merseyside hospital after they were flown home from China aboard a Wamos Air Boeing 747.
At the time, those quarantined were kept in a block of apartments on the hospital site and underwent testing before eventually being allowed to leave after completing isolation.
The facility later became nicknamed ‘Camp Corona’ during the early days of the pandemic.
Previous reports from inside the quarantine centre claimed some evacuees threatened to leave unless they were provided with better food and alcohol.
One security guard alleged the site had been stocked with beer, wine, and spirits after complaints from residents, while another claimed one quarantined patient threatened to ‘break out’ after becoming drunk.
The government later introduced emergency legal powers making it an offence for anyone in coronavirus quarantine to leave isolation before being cleared by doctors.
