Coronavirus bus drivers still DON’T get hazmats… while evacuated cruise passengers wear face masks

Coronavirus bus drivers still haven’t worn protective hazmat suits in Britain as they drove 32 British and European cruise passengers wearing face masks to two-week quarantine. 

Exposed drivers and medical officers were pictured taking the tourists, who were on-board the coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess, on the 217-mile trip to Arrowe Park Hospital in the Wirral after their evacuation flight touched down in Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, this morning. 

Bus drivers in France wore virus-blocking face masks as they drove 34 French citizens evacuated from Wuhan to quarantine yesterday, while drivers in Japan and Canada were seen wearing the protective masks as they drove passengers from the doomed vessel.

It is the second time UK authorities have taken the risk after 83 evacuated Britons from Wuhan and their driver were not required to wear face masks for their 172-mile trip to quarantine.

Bus drivers and medical officers were pictured not wearing protective face masks as they drove evacuees from coronavirus-stricken Diamond Princess to quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral

A driver and medic pictured in bus C not wearing protective face masks for the 217-mile trip to Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral

A driver and medic pictured in bus C not wearing protective face masks for the 217-mile trip to Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral

A bus driver in France wore a face mask as he drove 34 French citizens who had been in Wuhan to quarantine yesterday

A bus driver in France wore a face mask as he drove 34 French citizens who had been in Wuhan to quarantine yesterday

Drivers in Japan took no chances and wore full protective gear as they drove passengers from virus-stricken ship yesterday

Drivers in Japan took no chances and wore full protective gear as they drove passengers from virus-stricken ship yesterday

A bus at Trenton air force base in Quinte West, Ontario, transports Canadian passengers who were rescued from the Diamond Princess cruise ship yesterday. The driver is also wearing a facemask along with medical officers and passengers

A bus at Trenton air force base in Quinte West, Ontario, transports Canadian passengers who were rescued from the Diamond Princess cruise ship yesterday. The driver is also wearing a facemask along with medical officers and passengers

A fleet of coaches was positioned to take the passengers to quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital, Wirral, when their flight touched down this morning.

Two drivers were both pictured without a hazmat suit and face masks, while a medical officer sitting in the bus was also pictured not wearing a face mask. 

More than half of the 78 UK nationals who were trapped on the doomed pleasure cruise refused to board the evacuation flight. Four infected Britons remain in hospital in Japan, and are accompanied by a handful of loved ones.

Passengers were met off the ship by officials wearing hazmat suits and face masks as their quarantine came to an end yesterday, before they were bussed to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. 

An 87-year-old man and 84-year-old woman, both from Japan, have died after contracting coronavirus on the ship. There are at least 630 cases from the vessel reported so far.

Two Australians evacuated from the Diamond Princess tested positive for coronavirus in Darwin yesterday. 

The driver and medical officer pictured not wearing face masks unlike their passengers. Public Health England said this was because all passengers from the flight were checked on arrival and did not display coronavirus symptoms

The driver and medical officer pictured not wearing face masks unlike their passengers. Public Health England said this was because all passengers from the flight were checked on arrival and did not display coronavirus symptoms

US citizens are evacuated from the Diamond Princess and transported by shuttle bus in Yokohama to Haneda airport to fly back to the US via a chartered plane on Monday

US citizens are evacuated from the Diamond Princess and transported by shuttle bus in Yokohama to Haneda airport to fly back to the US via a chartered plane on Monday

Public Health England told MailOnline that its experts are ‘well-trained at assessing risk’ and ‘are adopting approaches that they have used in a number of emerging infections to reduce the risk to the public’.

All passengers were checked after arriving in the UK, they said, and none displayed any symptoms of coronavirus, 2019-nCoV. Medics travelling with the group wre wearing PPE as a precaution in case anyone was taken ill during the journey.

Seating arrangements on board also allegedly meant that the drivers were not within two metres of passengers during the journey. Drivers do not pose a risk to public health as a result of transporting these passengers, they said. 

At the end of last month authorities took the same risk when drivers were not required to wear face masks as they evacuated the 83 Britons from Wuhan.

They were even seen greeting suspected patients with handshakes at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire, before embarking on the lengthy drive to the north west.

The Department of Health said at the time that coach drivers – who would not be quarantined – would be wearing ‘appropriate protective equipment’, but images emerged of them wearing none despite being sat beside hazmat-wearing medical workers.

They were asked to drive those brought back from China without any masks or specialist clothing – and will now take a period of paid leave away from others.

A spokesman for Horseman Coaches, which provided the vehicles for the first evacuation, said their staff had been reassured by government officials that they did not need to wear face masks for the journey because passengers had been quarantined for eight days in China and were cleared of symptoms before the flight.

However, the Department of Health rubbished the eight-day claim and said no protective gear was required because the risk to drivers was ‘very low.’

MailOnline understands the flight is scheduled to depart at around 5am local time (8pm), after UK officials announced a delay of several hours because they had not yet finalised a concrete plan. It is now expected to take off within hours

MailOnline understands the flight is scheduled to depart at around 5am local time (8pm), after UK officials announced a delay of several hours because they had not yet finalised a concrete plan. It is now expected to take off within hours

An evacuation flight carrying 32 British and European passengers who were on the coronavirus-riddled Diamond Princess pictured shortly after landing at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, this morning

An evacuation flight carrying 32 British and European passengers who were on the coronavirus-riddled Diamond Princess pictured shortly after landing at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, this morning

A fleet of coaches was seen poised and ready to transport the passengers to their two-week quarantine stint in the Wirral

A fleet of coaches was seen poised and ready to transport the passengers to their two-week quarantine stint in the Wirral

British couple David and Sally Abel, who have been sharing updates of their time on the cruise online and been confirmed as having coronavirus, did not board yesterday’s flight back to the UK. Mr Abel shared a Facebook post on Thursday saying he was ‘thinking of all the Brits flying home’ from his hospital bed.

Ministers have been repeatedly blasted for its dire handling of the planned evacuation, with eight countries having already managed an airlift – including the US who flew home 300 residents on February 16 and 17.

Brits trapped on the cruise – which has been docked off the coast of Yokohama since February 3 – accused Number of 10 of abandoning them, saying their treatment had been ‘pretty bad’ and the repatriation effort ‘slow’.