Residents of the Wirral have reacted to the news that a hospital in the Merseyside area has been chosen to house a coronavirus quarantine.
A flight carrying around 150 British nationals home from the virus-struck city of Wuhan will leave on Thursday night, UK time, and land at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday morning.
From there, the passengers will be taken up north to an NHS facility, understood to be an accommodation block at Arrowe Park Hospital, for an isolation period of 14 days.
Health experts have deemed it unlikely that any of those quarantined will be carrying the virus.
But many have reacted with surprise to the news, with several posting memes on Twitter about the move.
One jokingly wrote: “Oh great, Wirral's in the news, you don't often see that, so often overshadowed by Liverpool, it'd be great to see it get some positive pub... Oh.”
Another asked: “What did The Wirral do to deserve this?”
Others have jokingly suggested that the area, in northern England, is being punished for voting Labour in last year’s general election.
“Touché Boris Johnson touché,” tweeted one woman. “Picking the wirral to eradicate us for voting labour. I get it.”
Meanwhile, the Labour MP for Wirral South, Alison McGovern, said she had received no news from the government on the area's imminent guests.
She wrote: "No one has informed me. Awaiting a call. Will be asking Dept for Health to make sure that those being brought to Wirral be made as comfortable as possible.
"Know my constituents will feel for them and will back our brilliant NHS staff to do everything necessary to help."
Local Liberal Democrat councillor Andy Corkhill agreed, saying his town of Oxton would accommodate in anyway it could.
He wrote: “Can we all calm down please? Not one of the 200 has been reported to be ill, & the Wirral has some of the best facilities in the country.
"Happy to help."
