The buses some Americans have been waiting for finally arrived.

Hi, this is it about to step into the big wide world.

So I have to put my mask on and, uh, get going.

Bye.

As Cheryl and Palm Olesky bid farewell, others left stay.

300 Americans set off from the Diamond Princess cruiseliner late at night to fly back to the U.

S.

Were exhausted.

Were on the plane a flight like no other, complete with HAZ mat suits and masks on route to Texas for another 14 days of quarantine.

On top of the fortnight, they've already had they leave.

As the biggest spiking cases on board has been confirmed, 99 people have tested positive, bringing the total to 454.

But for British passengers still on board, the question is, when can they get off?

The son of a couple on the ship wants to know this'd is my play.

This is my plate and is asking the government to help.

I want my mom and dad to wake up in the morning and actually have some information sense them.

I want them to be that they need to be communicated with.

No one's actually speaking to them, which is driving them crazy, as if it's like that going crazy as it is just being like that coming.

The Foreign Office say British citizens could be flown home on They're looking into a repatriation flight.

The Diamond Princess now has the highest number of people with Cove in 19 outside of Wuhan.

How did this all begin?

On the first of February?

A cruise passenger from Hong Kong test positive for the cove in 19 virus.

When he gets off in the third of February, the Diamond Princess is placed on quarantine on screening on board starts.

On the 15th Americans are told about evacuation plans to get them off the ship On the 16th other countries, including Canada, Israel and Australia, announced they're following suit on on the 19th of Feb.

It's expected this is when the end of quarantine will happen.

Not all on board want to come off.

We speak to American Matthew Smith, who decided to stay that we have never gone outside our cabin.

No one has ever come in, Um, but I don't believe that the food service or or service from the crew is is likely to have communicated the virus to us, and we do not have contact with anyone out on the balconies.

So we believe you know anything can happen, but we believe were sufficiently protected that there's no reason to be afraid of having cotton caught the virus.

And even if it somehow happened, you know we'll just deal with it.

Being afraid of it is not gonna change here in the UK the government of ramping up their response for passengers arriving from parts of China and Asia.

The Holiday Inn there, Heathrow is block booked as part of measures to control the spread of the virus.

But tonight the focus is on the Diamond Princess cruise liner.

With two days of quarantine left, questions are being asked whether passengers should have been taken off sooner.

Different countries grapple with the best way to deal with covert 19 I said, Tell reporting.

Well, joining us now is Dr Natalie McDermott, especially still outbreak disease control at King's College, London.

Let's just stay with the ship for a moment.

I mean, why do you think it's been such a disaster?

I mean, everybody thought about a clever idea, but in fact, it's been a method of giving more people the disease.

Yeah, I think it is a bit of a conundrum.

Really?

Because it should have worked.

S o.

I think that probably needs to be an investigation once everyone's off the ship.

Thio identify what happened?

Did quarantine measures fail?

So where was it not being implemented properly?

Was there some kind of environmental source on the ship that we need to know about that helped in the transmission, or is this really just that?

Actually, a lot of people were exposed a lot earlier than we thought before quarantine started on.

They're just showing symptoms over a gradual period of time.

But, I mean, the cruise ship is being isolated, obviously.

But at the same time, we get this information from here in Britain that schools should sort of carry on if a suspect suddenly comes to school and they're worried about the worst.

But how does that work?

Yes, that the schools are being advised if there's a suspect case so that someone who hasn't necessarily tested positive for the virus yet they just have symptoms that could meet with the virus.

But we know that the symptoms of this virus in the early stages a very similar to any other cough or cold or flu virus.

So it's very likely that the child probably isn't infected.

And I think at the moment they're trying to encourage Children to go to school because we don't have any person to person transmission off the Corona virus here in the UK at the moment.

That's very interesting because these plans to provide hotel rooms, for example, for travelers are showing symptoms at Heathrow.

How does that work?

I mean, if you're showing symptoms at school, but you haven't got it, what's the difference?

My understanding of the hotel rooms is essentially contingency planning.

So if there were a lot of people coming off a flight or several flights in one day who were thought to be unwell in some way that were identified, this is somewhere that they could be placed whilst they're awaiting test results.

Now, in the you cat sounds a little bit like the cruise liner, I mean, well, yes, but But they're coming from places that are known to be affected on the cruise liner is known at the moment had confirmed cases on board in the UK At the moment, we only have one current confirmed case who is isolated in a hospital.

So what public health England are advising is Children can still go to school.

We shouldn't be holding them back because of concerns.

But if there is a confirmed case in the school, then they will take action and discuss with head teacher of the school.

What measures need to be in place on briefly, teachers of fine providing it's only suspects and not confirmed and workers that he's row okay, providing the same yes, so, essentially that the strategy is always to do a risk assessment on the risk assessment for someone in the UK who hasn't traveled at the moment would be very low that their symptoms are off Corona virus, especially if there's no known contact at Heathrow.

The workers are safe, but obviously they will be contacted by public health.

England If they're known to have contact with someone who test positive.

Dr.

Nasty Mac.

Damn it.