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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
National
Jenny Kirkham

Everyone held in Arrowe Park coronavirus quarantine to be released

Everyone being held at Arrowe Park's coronavirus quarantine will be released on Thursday.

The 83 patients, who were transported to the Wirral hospital two weeks ago, have tested negative for the deadly virus and will reportedly be allowed to go home.

After being evacuated from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the British nationals were flown into the UK before travelling on coaches from military base Brize Norton to Merseyside.

Further repatriation flights followed the first group of patients.

While the death toll in China has risen, all 83 of the first wave of patients accepted to Arrowe Park are now believed to have been told they do not have coronavirus.

The patients have been under quarantine for around two weeks while tests were carried out.

But they have now been told they will be able to leave the Wirral hospital on February 13.

This week, the UK Chief Medical Officer raised the threat level of coronavirus on the UK from low to moderate, prompting new Public Health England guidance for NHS Trusts.

As of 2pm on Wednesday,  1,758 tests have been carried out for the virus in the UK with eight positive cases.

The patients held at Arrowe Park were reportedly tested multiple times during their two week stay in isolation at the hospital's staff accomodation.

Arrowe Park was chosen to host the quarantined patients because of the availability of the NHS accommodation and because of its close proximity to the Royal Liverpool Hospital, where there is a specialist infectious diseases unit.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "The Royal Liverpool is one of the best hospitals in the world for dealing with these sorts of diseases.

"It is one of the hospitals that we identified in advance to be one of the places that people will be taken to should they have coronavirus and was one of the advantages of the use of the facilities that were available at Arrowe Park was because of that proximity."

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