A new arrangement between the government and airlines will see tens of thousands of Britons that are currently stranded abroad flown home.
The arrangement comes amid the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic, which has seen many flights cancelled as Britons are told to avoid all but essential travel.
Speaking at Downing Street’s daily press conference on the Coronavirus pandemic, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said an ‘unprecedented’ number of UK travellers were trying to get home. Airlines including British Airways, Virgin, EasyJet, Titan and Jet2, amongst others, have agreed to fly stranded Britons back to the UK. Under the arrangement, airlines will be responsible for getting passengers with pre-booked tickets back to the UK.
The government has also pledged up to £75 million to enable special charter flights to some countries for where commercial routes are no longer feasible.
Travel advice from the UK government during the pandemic and information for those stranded amid the pandemic can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/travel-advice-novel-coronavirus
As of 9am on Monday, a total of 134,946 have been tested for COVID-19 in the UK. 22,141 tested positive for the virus and 112,805 tested negative. As of 5pm on 29 March, 1,408 people have sadly died from COVID-19 in the UK.
NHS England chief executive Sir Simon Stevens announced on Monday that 9,000 people are in England’s hospitals with COVID-19 and said the number is ‘only going to rise’. The new temporary NHS Nightingale hospital being set up in London’s ExCel Centre is now just days away from opening, it is understood.
The Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the Health Secretary Matt Hancock are currently self-isolating after testing positive for the virus. Boris Johnson’s chief adviser Dominic Cummings has also now self-isolated are experiencing symptoms of the virus.
Photo Credit: Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street under licence (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
