Flight half full due to lack of clarity over who could fly and how to reach airport amid lockdown

Britons still stranded in the Chinese city at the centre of the deadly coronavirus outbreak have said confusing messages from officials contributed to them missing an evacuation flight home.

Downing Street said on Thursday that up to 200 people would be on the chartered flight, but when it left Wuhan at 9.45am on Friday only 83 British people and 27 foreign nationals were onboard. It landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire at 1330 local time.

Those who missed the flight said that just hours before the delayed flight departed, there was a lack of clarity over who would be allowed to board. There was also confusion over how people would reach the airport given the ban on public transport and most private cars.

Quick guide What are coronavirus symptoms and should I go to a doctor? Show Hide What is Covid-19? Covid-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that has never been encountered before. Like other coronaviruses, it has come from animals. The World Health Organization (WHO) has declared it a pandemic. What are the symptoms this coronavirus causes? According to the WHO, the most common symptoms of Covid-19 are fever, tiredness and a dry cough. Some patients may also have a runny nose, sore throat, nasal congestion and aches and pains or diarrhoea. Some people report losing their sense of taste and/or smell. About 80% of people who get Covid-19 experience a mild case – about as serious as a regular cold – and recover without needing any special treatment. About one in six people, the WHO says, become seriously ill. The elderly and people with underlying medical problems like high blood pressure, heart problems or diabetes, or chronic respiratory conditions, are at a greater risk of serious illness from Covid-19. In the UK, the National health Service (NHS) has identified the specific symptoms to look for as experiencing either: a high temperature - you feel hot to touch on your chest or back

a new continuous cough - this means you’ve started coughing repeatedly As this is viral pneumonia, antibiotics are of no use. The antiviral drugs we have against flu will not work, and there is currently no vaccine. Recovery depends on the strength of the immune system. Should I go to the doctor if I have a cough? Medical advice varies around the world - with many countries imposing travel bans and lockdowns to try and prevent the spread of the virus. In many place people are being told to stay at home rather than visit a doctor of hospital in person. Check with your local authorities. In the UK, NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days. If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home.

Nick, who has dual British and US citizenship and has a wife and two children in Wuhan, was among those who did not board the plane. He hesitated about travelling to the airport because he had initially been told there was no guarantee that his wife, who is Indonesian, would be able to fly.

He said they believed it was safer to stay at home than to travel to the airport late at night when the city was under lockdown.

“We thought long and hard and decided to give up our seats and ensure that the plane left full,” he said.

Later, the family was told the Chinese government had given verbal assurances that his wife would be able to leave. But by then the flight was due to leave within a few hours and he had already given up his seat.

“A couple of hours later they called again and asked if we were still planning on trying to get to the plane and offered help with transportation. When I told him how far we were from the airport [the man] said there was no chance of getting there in time.”

Adam Bridgeman, whose son was born at the start of the outbreak, said his family had missed the flight because they could not get to the airport in time.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he, his Chinese wife and their son had been unable to find a car to the airport in time to catch the flight.

His wife had even tried calling the police to see if they could help get them there on time, he said.

“I got a call saying there would be a flight leaving at 5am but we had to be at the airport at 1am.

“We thought: ‘We are probably not going to make it.’ Then we got another call. They said they had delayed the flight a little bit. At this point we thought maybe we should go.

“We tried to get transport to the airport. Unfortunately we were unable to find a car. She [his wife] phoned the police to see if they could arranging something, but nothing.”

Later, the Foreign Office arranged for a driver to pick them up.

“Unfortunately we had some trouble getting him to get to the right spot to pick us up,” Bridgeman said. “By the time he was there, we only had about 15 minutes to get to the airport, so we thought: ‘It’s too late’ so we just went home.”

He said the FCO had told him his family might be able to leave the city on another flight.

“The Foreign Office said that they might be able to organise for us to board a different plane from, in their words, one of Britain’s EU partners.”

Foreign Office sources said they were aware of the frustrations of some Britons in Wuhan, particularly those who had wanted to leave but were unable to board a plane. They said the complicated situation on the ground and some difficulties working with the Chinese authorities had made it hard to communicate effectively with those hoping to be evacuated.

An estimated 40 Britons are still stranded in the wider Wuhan area. Only 83 of the anticipated 120 Britons were able to board the emergency flight. The remainder would be able to return on a later plane, although it was not clear when that would travel.

Officials said consular staff had worked hard to get people on the flight, which was delayed for an extra three hours to try to get people onboard, but British officials said it had to leave within the time slot allocated by China.

Confusion about whether China would let families of mixed British and Chinese nationality leave complicated the picture, with the UK saying Beijing had only relented at the last minute to allow Chinese passport holders to fly to the UK with British family members.