Passengers flying from Russia to Dublin were left in the dark for hours before a suspected coronavirus victim was removed from the plane by people in hazmat suits.
Travellers were told to stay in their seats for two hours after landing at Dublin airport while a man with ‘flu-like symptoms’ was escorted to isolation.
The remaining passengers were given leaflets saying the flight contained someone ‘with a possible case of novel coronavirus’ and advised to stay indoors and limit contact with other people once they got home.
Laura Noonan, 36, has been visiting Moscow every three to four months since January 2018 for haematology treatment for her rare blood disorder.
The GP and mum-of-one was returning home to Dublin with her husband Archie O’Connor, 39, when they realised a nearby passenger was unwell.
She said: ‘We were not told that anything was wrong during the flight.
‘We moved about the cabin and used the bathrooms as you usually would.
‘Air stewardesses were very pleasant and enquired as to my wellbeing – at no point did we realise something sinister was also evolving on board.
‘When we landed, passengers stood up to got their cabin baggage get ready to leave the plane but the captain then came on speaker and ordered all passengers to sit down, which they did.
‘Shortly after a man boarded wearing a hazmat suit and gloves and walked down the plane, took a Chinese passenger from his seat and walked him back up the entire plane and exited at the front meaning the man passed lots of passengers during his retrieval.
‘I could see ambulances, airport police and members of the garda siochana (Irish police force) on the tarmac.
‘The man was quickly taken into the ambulance but it remained on the airport tarmac for a very long time.’
Passengers were told to write down their seat numbers and personal contact information on forms provided by public health doctors.
Laura said: ‘Nobody who dealt with us in Dublin was wearing any personal protective equipment or even gloves when handling our passports.
She added: ‘We are in a quasi unenforceable “isolation” at home until we get confirmation as to the diagnosis of the Chinese man taken off our flight after we landed in Dublin last night.
National Public Health Emergency Team said it would not give out information about individual matters other than confirmed cases.
There are no confirmed cases in Ireland.
Globally coronavirus has killed more than 300 people. Until today, all deaths reported were in China.
There has been one fatality due to coronavirus outside the epicentre, a 44-year-old man from the Philippines.
There have been two confirmed cases and no fatalities in the UK
What is the coronavirus and where did it start?
Coronaviruses are a family of diseases which include the common cold and the virus which caused Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which originated in China in 2002 and killed nearly 800 people around the world.
The virus causing concern now is a new strain which has made the jump from animals to people.
It causes flu-like symptoms and can make it hard for people to breathe, causing viral pneumonia in severe cases.
Over 100 people worldwide have now died after contracting the illness.
The virus is more likely to progress into a severe illness or prove fatal among older patients or those with weakened immune systems.
As it is a viral illness, antibiotics will not help and there is no known cure or vaccine.
What are the symptoms of the virus? .
The Foreign Office has warned against all but essential travel to mainland China, and British Airways has subsequently suspended flights there.
They have not advised against travel to Thailand and Japan, which have both seen cases of the virus, but warned there are enhanced quarantine procedures at entry points to Japan such as airports and ports.
If you’re booked onto a flight with BA and are scheduled to fly between January 26 – February 23, you can request a refund.
In order to do this, get in touch with them directly through the BA website.
They also offer the option to rebook to the same destination, although it is not known when flights to mainland China will resume.
Can I get a refund on my BA flights?
Is it safe to travel to Thailand?
Is it safe to travel to Japan as the coronavirus spreads?
To avoid the illness, take usual hygiene precautions, such as using a tissue to cover coughs and sneezes, and making sure to wash your hands.
Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth after touching things like poles on public transport and avoid close contact with people suffering an acute respiratory infection.
You should also avoid unprotected contact with wild or farm animals.
So far, no cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the UK.
Almost 100 people have been tested for it here, with all of the tests coming back negative.
How many people in the UK have it?
The virus originated in the city of Wuhan in China, where it is believed to have made the jump from animals to people at a seafood market.
Wuhan is the capital of China’s Hubei province, a landlocked province in central China.
It is built along the Yangtze river, and is around 500 miles west of Shanghai and 690 miles north of Hong Kong.
It is the largest and most populous city in central China, although estimates over its population vary.
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