Hundreds of Britons are feared to be trapped in a Tenerife hotel that has been placed in lockdown due to a coronavirus outbreak.
Roughly 700 guests were confined to their bedrooms at the four-star H10 Costa Adeje Palace Hotel in a desperate attempt to stop the virus from spreading.
British guests described how their trips had turned into a ‘holiday from hell’ after the coastal hotel in the south-west of the island was suddenly shut yesterday morning.
The scare was triggered when a doctor and his wife from the Italian region at the centre of the health crisis fell ill and tested positive.
Last night, Canary Islands President Angel Victor Torres said the ‘hundred and odd’ tourists who checked into the hotel on Monday – and had had no contact with the patients – could leave on Wednesday.
But at a highly anticipated press conference, he dropped the bombshell that most of the guests will be ‘subject to active individual monitoring’ and paved the way for a two-week quarantine period.
Hotel bosses also announced the Costa Adeje Palace was closing until the middle of March to ‘guarantee the safety of guests and staff.’
Setting out the immediate future for most of the holidaymakers currently in the hotel, he Domingo Nunez, head of Epidemiology of the Canary Islands Health Service, said: ‘Guests will have to stay in the hotel without leaving the hotel.
Closed: The H10 Costa Adeje Palace is being guarded by police. Up to 1,000 guests were confined to their bedrooms at the four-star in a desperate attempt to stop the virus from spreading
Waiting for news: Crowds outside the hotel in Tenerife. Last night, it was revealed most of the guests will be ‘subject to active individual monitoring’ and could endure a two-week quarantine in the hotel
Trapped: Hundreds of Britons are feared to be trapped in the Tenerife hotel that has been placed in lockdown due to a coronavirus outbreak. Pictured: Britons Elaine Whitewick and Jayney Brown
Escaped: Anthony Wilkins with his girlfriend Sheila Taylor and her daughters Charlotte and Jess. Officials told Anthony Wilkins, 60, that his stay at the hotel had coincided with the Italian carriers’
‘Those who have symptoms will be evaluated and will stay in the hotel without leaving their rooms and depending on the results of the tests and whether they test positive or negative, a further decision would then be taken.
‘If they tested positive they would be transferred to hospital.
‘The people who are not showing any symptoms can move freely inside the hotel, although under certain conditions such as using the facemarks which are now available. But they still won’t be able to leave the hotel.
‘Once we have new information, we will come to a consensus with the Ministry of Health about what we’re going to do.
‘But at the moment the situation and the outlook is that people will have to stay inside the hotel.’
Mr Torres revealed the Italian doctor – believed top have stayed for six days – flew to Tenerife on February 17 and took a bus to the hotel.
The President confirmed they are still waiting for the results of second tests carried out in Madrid on the doctor and his wife, but expected them to come back positive.
The doctor was part of a group of 10 Italians who were the first of the hotel guests to be tested for coronavirus, although none were ‘showing symptoms.’
Another 23 Italians were the next group to be tested and tests on the remaining guests were still going on Tuesday night.
Guests yesterday expressed concerns that hundreds of holidaymakers may have already come into contact with the infected couple before travelling to their homes across Europe.
British couple David Hoon and Pamela Scott (pictured together) say they fear that ‘we stand more chance of catching the coronavirus’ during the hotel lockdown
Holidaymakers stand on their balconies, some of them speaking on their phones, as they wait for news during today’s lockdown
One guest posted this picture of a padlock on a door of the hotel, with a police vehicle parked outside to enforce the quarantine.
One Briton who has just returned from the hotel with his family criticised the UK’s ‘confusing’ health advice, while others stuck in the hotel said the way the situation was being handled was a ‘disgrace’
The hotel’s external doors were padlocked shut as dozens of police officer guarded its entrances after the alert was triggered.
Letters were placed under the doors of the hotel’s 500 rooms telling guests that the hotel had been ‘closed down’ and that guests ‘must remain’ in their rooms.
The hotel is hugely popular with British tourists, with operators Jet2 and TUI both providing package holidays – though it remains unclear exactly how many Britons have been trapped inside.
While some guests were served breakfast in their bedrooms in an attempt to enforce the curfew, many others ignored the stay-put advice and started to roam around.
Those willing to venture out into the ‘ghost town’ were able to eat breakfast at a buffet and use the hotel’s sun-lounging areas, while a makeshift distribution station was set up for bottled water.
People outside a Tenerife hotel today after it was sealed off amid fears of a coronavirus outbreak in Spain, after an Italian visitor tested positive yesterday
A letter from Tenerife hotel staff telling guests including British tourists to stay in their rooms after an Italian visitor tested positive for coronavirus
But as chaos gripped the hotel, those who remained inside their rooms complained of going hungry and being forced to survive on snacks with little information about what was happening.
Face masks were initially distributed to the hotel’s staff members, prompting complaints that guests had been left with no protection from further spread.
The situation was only later resolved when the owner of a meat company delivered 1,000 masks and 200 gloves for worried guests.
As health staff arrived to carry out tests at the hotel yesterday, a notice attached to the back gate of the hotel read: ‘Entrance forbidden to people not authorised.’
A British holidaymaker who recently returned from the hotel yesterday criticised the UK’s ‘confusing’ health advice and described how he had been gripped with worry since returning to the UK.
Officials told Anthony Wilkins, 60, that his stay at the hotel had coincided with the Italian carriers’.
But since returning to the UK on a Jet2 flight on Sunday with his girlfriend Sheila Taylor, 47, and her two daughters, they have received wildly conflicting advice.
Employees wearing protective masks arrange water bottles in the lobby of the hotel
An employee wears a protective mask as he talks with guests inside the quarantined hotel
Spanish police officers stand outside the H10 Costa Adeje Palace hotel in Tenerife
The salesman said: ‘The last thing I want is to be blamed for spreading this around. The advice so far has been terrible.’
Mr Wilkins, from Carlisle, called the NHS 111 number and was told that there is no need to go into ‘self-isolation’ because he had not presented symptoms.
Despite raising concerns, Miss Taylor has been advised to turn up at the NHS hospital where she works as a theatre nurse despite advice from her GP to remain in isolation.
Mr Wilkins said: ‘I am 99.9 per cent sure that we don’t have the virus and are not panicking or dramatising. But I don’t want to get on a train and possibly start spreading the virus.’
Holidaymaker Elaine Whitewick, who is away with friend Jayney Brown, shared videos on Facebook showing police outside the hotel.
She said: ‘This is what we’ve been offered. Just water. We’ve been told we’ve got to go back to our rooms.’
Nigel Scotland, another guest, estimated that ‘500 or 600 people must have left the hotel and gone back to various places in Europe’ during the infected doctor’s stay.
British guest David Hoon, 60, from Matlock, Derbyshire, said: ‘Nobody is telling us what’s going on. The way this has been handled is a disgrace.’
The Canary Islands president said people of 25 nationalities were staying at the hotel, although he put the number of guests at around 700 – 300 less than the 1,000 people estimated to have been staying there yesterday.
A team of doctors will remain at the hotel round-the-clock for the time being. Psychologists will also form part of the response team.
A Foreign Office spokesman said that its staff were offering advice and support to a number of British people at the hotel and their families.