Coronavirus: British couple quarantined on cruise ship criticise UK government response
A British couple stuck in quarantine on a cruise ship off the Japanese coast following a coronavirus outbreak on-board has criticised Boris Johnson and the UK government for not helping them.
In a video aired live on Facebook on Sunday, David Abel, who identifies as a “staunch Tory”, said he had “no confidence” in the prime minister.
“It has become far tougher than I could ever have imagined it would be in this situation,” Mr Abel said.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office told The Independent it was "working around the clock" to ensure the welfare of British nationals on the ship, saying it was speaking to authorities in Japan.
The couple are two of more than 3,500 people stuck in quarantine on the Diamond Princess since 4 February, after a guest tested positive for coronavirus in Hong Kong.
So far, 285 people on-board the cruise liner have been diagnosed with coronavirus, making it the biggest cluster of cases of the virus outside the Chinese mainland.
On Saturday, another 67 people on the ship were confirmed as suffering from coronavirus, according to Reuters.
The US has said it will airlift its citizens off the Diamond Princess and fly them home.
In the video posted on Sunday from the ship, Mr Abel said he had little hope of the British government launching a similar operation.
Mr Abel made headlines last week when he appealed to entrepreneur Richard Branson to bring the British passengers on the Diamond Princess back to the UK.
At the time, he said: "Take us to Brize Norton, take us straight into the medical facility and let us do our quarantine there by people who can speak our language."
If they test negative for coronavirus, the couple could choose to disembark from the ship and spend their remaining time in quarantine in a facility on the Japanese mainland.
However, Mr Abel ruled out this possibility, saying he would not be comfortable with this arrangement – citing the lack of WiFi and the Japanese food offered there.
As of Sunday, coronavirus has killed more than 1,650 people since it was first identified in December last year, according to the Chinese health authorities.
The first fatality from the virus in Europe was announced by the French health minister on Saturday, after an 80-year-old Chinese tourist died in a hospital in Paris from a lung infection caused by coronavirus.
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