A English teacher who has lived in Wuhan for the last four years described his long journey back to the UK after being evacuated on Friday.

Speaking from his room at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral, where he and 82 other Britons will be quarantined for two weeks in NHS staff accommodation, he said he was “very tired” after a 30 hour journey but grateful to have been evacuated.

The 32-year-old man, who asked not to be named, described the facilities where he was staying:

“It’s like being in a crap hotel or a student halls of residence. I haven’t actually asked but I suspect I’m not really supposed to come out here in the next 14 days. It’s alright though. It will be OK.”

Quick Guide What are coronavirus symptoms and should I go to a doctor? Show 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.

The Wamos Air Boeing 747 plane carrying the Britons to the UK from Wuhan landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday lunchtime.

The evacuees then boarded coaches and were taken up to Wirral. “I don’t know how long it took but it felt like forever,” he said. “At that point, we had been travelling for a day. My back was aching and I really wasn’t in a good mood any more.”

Once they arrived, they were processed and taken to their rooms. The teacher said a nurse, who was wearing a face mask and not a full hazmat suit, brought him a sandwich and some custard cream biscuits. “I hadn’t had a custard cream in four years so that was quite a nice treat.

“Everyone has been really nice to be fair. I think they are mostly nurses. We haven’t been given health checks yet though … We have been told that a friend and family contact centre will be set up on Saturday and also that we will be supported back to our home after the 14 days.”

Two of the man’s friends were also evacuated at the same time. He said it was “definitely the right move for us to leave as it felt like we were at the centre of the new ebola outbreak”.

The teacher described his last week in Wuhan while in lockdown as “really really horrible.

“It was a mixture of boredom and uncertainty. Every day it got worse. It didn’t get better and although the odds of you getting infected were statistically very low, if it did happen, I was worried about what to do because the hospitals aren’t the best.”

He said that around four days ago, it started to sound in conversations with the Foreign Office crisis phone line service as if Britons in Wuhan would be evacuated, but it was all “very very up in the air”.

He added that he found out a lot of the details of the evacuation through the British media, but didn’t blame the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the poor communication.

The teacher said: “I think they were excellent. They didn’t communicate that well before we were met to to go the airport but things don’t work the same in Asia as they do over here and I think they were cooperating with a fairly uncooperative authority. Since we met them to go to the airport they were really good and did everything on point.”

There was a tense moment at the toll booth near the airport in Wuhan where the buses were stopped by military police before finally being allowed through. The delay took around four hours.

“The whole thing was kind of scary at the time,” the teacher said. “But it was more boring than anything else.”