Tens of thousands repatriated from abroad including Covid-19 hit Spain
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Foreign Minister Dominic Raab has revealed tens of thousands of British nationals have been repatriated since he announced a deal with airlines to get people home.
The majority of them were flown from Spain – which has seen a huge wave of coronavirus infections and deaths across the country – as well as from Egypt and from Indonesia in recent days.
Amid considerable speculation about Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s health after he was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital in London for persistent symptoms of the coronavirus there were a number of questions about his role.
However, neither Mr Raab nor the chief medical officer Chris Whitty, who returned to the daily briefing having been in self-isolation having suffered symptoms himself of the illness, would be drawn on the Prime Minister’s condition.
Also after claims banks were making life difficult for those seeking emergency government-sponsored loans, the Foreign Secretary confirmed that ministers had been in contact with banks and the chancellor Rishi Sunak will set out further details of government support "as soon as practical".
Mr Raab said: “The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) is supporting all of these operational priorities so we deployed the diplomatic network right around the world to source ventilators and protective equipment so we can reinforce the NHS frontline.
“Here at home at the same time working with the government and the airlines to bring home as many stranded British nationals as we possibly can, prioritising our most vulnerable citizens on commercial flights.
“We helped over 20,000 UK nationals come home from Spain, 13,000 from Egypt 8000 from Indonesia – we have also chartered flights from seven different countries to bring home more than 2000 British nationals and repatriated a further 1550 from cruise ships.
“We already had flights back from countries including Peru, Ghana, and Tunisia and the further flights from India, South Africa, Nepal and the Philippines which will fly later on this week.”
