Coronavirus news UK: First patient leaves Arrowe Park quarantine on the Wirral

The first patients are being discharged from a hospital in Merseyside where they have spent two weeks in coronavirus quarantine after returning to the UK from China.

Matt Raw, 38, who was repatriated from Wuhan – the city at the centre of the outbreak  – was pictured leaving Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral just after midday on Thursday.

He was the first of 83 Britons to be photographed leaving the facility since the group arrived on a rescue flight a fortnight ago.

Looking elated upon his release Mr Raw, from Knutsford, shouted: “We’re free… and the sun’s shining.”

He continued: “Some good fresh air and very, very, very happy that all 83 of us have tested negative for the virus and I guess now back to business as usual.

“It is absolutely lovely to be out and I’ll no doubt be going out for a pint a little bit later.”

The “freed” patients were later pictured waving from a coach as they left the hospital grounds.

Meanwhile, Dr William Welfare, of Public Health England (PHE), thanked Mr Raw and his companions for their patience.

He said: “We would like to thank all of those who have been staying at Arrowe Park for their patience and support over the last two weeks.

“All the test results from flight one have come back negative so we can be very clear that all of those leaving today do not pose risk to the wider public.”

He said a further group of guests, who arrived on a later flight, would leave at the weekend if all was well.

Mr Raw told reporters outside the hospital that the experience had “not been that bad” because staff looked after the group “so excellently.”

He said: “The wonderful, wonderful staff of the NHS, they have really done their very best to make us as comfortable as possible.

“We’re not prisoners. They’re trying to make us feel like, if anything, we’re just on holiday for a couple of weeks, maybe without the swimming pool.”​

He and his fellow patients previously posted videos and selfies online after a final meal of lasagne, chips and spring rolls in anticipation of their departure.

Mr Raw went on: “I would say that 99.9 per cent of us, if not 100 per cent of us, are really happy to have been here. We’re very grateful to have been here.

“The last thing that any one of us would have wanted is to have passed that virus on, if we were infected, to pass it on to somebody else.

“You have to live with that. If somebody does get sick from it and dies we’d have to live with that knowledge for the rest of our lives and of course that’s not who we are.

“Most of us travel a lot, we travel extensively, and there are risks associated with that so we do take ourselves seriously as ex-pats and we want to be as responsible as possible and if that means staying in quarantine for a couple of weeks so be it.”

He said he and his companions were “ecstatic” when they tested negative for the virus, “not just for ourselves, of course, for everybody here.”

“For 83 of us to all come back and all test negative was just absolutely phenomenally good news,” he said, adding that there were people who were “very anxious” about contracting the virus.

“Personally, I’ve cheated death quite a few times on my travels over the years and I guess this is just another one to tick off the list,” he said.

The 38-year-old said he planned to go home, turn the heating on and feed the goldfish after leaving the hospital, adding: “It’ll be lovely to be back and to see friends and family.”

He also dismissed reports of someone trying to leave the quarantine facility earlier in the week as a case of “mistaken identity”.

The rumours started after security mistook a member of staff for a patient, he said.

The success of the Arrowe Park quarantine was down to a strong collaboration across a “huge number of organisations”, according to Dr Welfare.

The PHE chief said: “This was an unusual situation, something that was set up rapidly and we’ve learnt lessons.

“We’ve implemented those lessons here, we’ve shared those with the facility that’s currently operating in Milton Keynes.”

Dr Kieran Murphy, deputy medical director for NHS England in the North West, also praised staff at Arrowe Park, saying: “I think it’s been great to see how everyone across Wirral has stepped up to the plate to help our guests from Wuhan and China.

“The first lot of guests leave today and we have a smaller number of guests who leave on Saturday.

“It’s been very impressive, the whole system, we’ve had volunteers, clinical colleagues, managers from across the NHS and the local authority and other partner organisations who’ve really pulled together to keep all our guests both safe, but actually made very welcome.”

He thanked staff and visitors at the hospital for their “generosity, patience and compassion”, adding: “We’ve had a lot of donations and kind words from people, letters, schoolchildren have sent in pictures.

“There’s been lots of support from the local community to help these guests and make them feel very welcome.

“We want to wish them well as they move on with the rest of their lives and leave us.”