Brits trapped in coronavirus-hit Tenerife hotel as Matt Hancock urges UK to prepare for outbreak

British holidaymakers told today of being trapped in a coronavirus-hit hotel in Tenerife.

They spoke of their ordeal as Health Secretary Matt Hancock urged millions of people in the UK to join the battle to stop the infection becoming “big” here.

Security forces were reportedly stopping hundreds of guests leaving the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace in Tenerife.

The lockdown at the hotel in the south-west of the island is believed to have been ordered by health chiefs after a doctor, who had been staying there with his wife, tested positive yesterday.

One guest posted an image on Facebook of a note put under the door of their room saying: “We regret to inform you that for health reasons, the hotel has been closed down. Until the sanitary authorities warn, you must remain in your rooms.”

Another guest, Christopher Betts, told Reuters: “We can see from the window there are security officers outside the hotel and about 50 hotel employees.”

Some guests had been put up at the hotel by tour operators after becoming stranded by a sandstorm which enveloped the island earlier this week. The infected doctor is reportedly from Lombardy in northern Italy, where nearly a dozen towns are in quarantine. Seven people have died in Italy and more than 200 cases have been confirmed.

The medic is understood to have been transferred to an isolation unit at the University Hospital Nuestra Señora de Candelaria in the port of Santa Cruz on the island and was due to have a second test.

Spanish media reported that up to 1,000 guests were being quarantined in the hotel and that authorities were carrying out tests in the resort of Adeje.

Global health chiefs believe the Covid-19 outbreak might have already peaked in China but are concerned at the number of new cases in other countries.

Mr Hancock issued an urgent appeal for the public to follow new self-isolation advice if returning from northern Italy, parts of South Korea and Iran, and engage in an unprecedented campaign of hand-washing.

“Every single person can do something to try to help this country avoid this virus becoming big and that is to wash your hands. If you sneeze to make sure you cover it up, catch it, kill it and bin it,” he stressed before updating the Cabinet on the crisis.

He dismissed calls for a ban on flights from countries hardest hit by Covid-19, describing such restrictions as a “Maginot Line”, referring to the huge French fortifications which failed to stop the German Second World War invasion.

Health chiefs were preparing to distribute thousands of home test kits for the virus if the number of cases spirals to avoid the infection being passed on in hospitals.

Scientists believe swift quarantine action, rather than trying to rely on travel restrictions, are key to containing the virus.

The Government’s chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty issued updated advice this morning which states:

• People who have returned from northern Italy (defined by a line above, and not including, Pisa, Florence and Rimini), Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar since February 19 and develop flu-like symptoms, however mild, should stay indoors at home and avoid contact with other people immediately and call NHS 111.

• If you have returned since February 19 from Iran, areas of northern Italy in “lockdown” or “special care zones” in South Korea or China’s Hubei province (in the past 14 days), you should call NHS 111 and stay indoors and avoid contact with other people even if you do not have symptoms.

• Anyone who has travelled to the UK from mainland China, Thailand, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau in the last 14 days and is experiencing cough or fever or shortness of breath, to stay indoors and call NHS 111, even if symptoms are mild.

Mr Hancock said the Government was not aware of any Britons who were in the quarantined areas of northern Italy, but he urged anyone there to make contact with the embassy in Rome.

The new travel advice comes as World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus warned that, while the spread of the virus around the world is not yet at pandemic stage, it has the potential to become one.

The Health Secretary said: “It is not yet clear that it will become a pandemic — the number of cases in China has been slowing over the last couple of weeks and we are relatively confident that information is correct.”

However, he told of his “worry” about the outbreaks in other countries and said more cases were expected in the UK, where 13 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19, including four over the weekend who had been on the Diamond Princess cruise ship that was held in quarantine in Japan. China reported 508 new cases and another 71 deaths on Tuesday, 68 of them in the central city of Wuhan, where the epidemic was first detected in December.

In total China has recorded 77,658 cases and 2,663 deaths.