Story By: Juan Mayes, Sub Editor: Alex Cope, Agency: Golder’s News And Sport
The Spanish football coaches trapped in the Chinese city of Wuhan have been given a lifeline as plans to airlift them out of the danger zone have reportedly been put into place.
Reports state over twenty Spanish people await their repatriation in the city of Wuhan located in the Hubei province in central China where the coronavirus started in December of last year.
Among them are a reported 12 football coaches who train footballers at Chinese side Wuhan Three Towns FC.
The image shows Jose Antonio Maldonado, Manuel Vela, Antonio Sevillano and Pedro Morilla who are four of the Spanish coaches trapped in the Chinese city.
Local media report the group is expected to be transported in a flight partially funded by the European Union and chartered by either France or the United Kingdom in the following days.
Despite there being no reports of a specific date for when the flight is set to take place, Coordination Centre for Sanitary Alerts and Emergencies director Fernando Simon said “I do not know if it will be tomorrow, the day after, Saturday or Sunday.”
One of the Spanish coaches Oliver Cuadrado spoke with local media and said: “This comes as a shot of energy because it is like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.”
French Health Minister Agnes Buzyn revealed France will charter their first flight for its nationals today (Thursday) and are expected to charter another one between tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday for European citizens of other nationalities.
However, a planned flight to bring UK nationals back to Britain from Wuhan will not go ahead today (Thursday) as Reports state Chinese officials are yet to grant permission for the chartered flight to depart.
People showing signs of the virus will reportedly not be allowed to board the flights to Europe.
Local media report once the Spanish nationals arrive back to Europe, they will be subject to tests and quarantined at a hospital located in the Spanish capital Madrid for two weeks before they are allowed to return to their homes.
Maldonado – another of the Spanish coaches – spoke with Spanish newspaper ‘La Vanguardia’ recently and said: “We were not too worried at first but things got complicated as the number of cases and the death toll went up.”
He went on to say: “We cycled to work every day and I had to constantly ring my bell to not hit anyone on the street. Now, you do not see a soul in the street.”
The images show when Maldonado walked in the streets of Wuhan showing depleting supplies in shops and completely empty streets and pavement.
Maldonado added: “The experience is unbelievable. Look at where we are during this coronavirus. Please, get us out of here now, before we get ill.
“Every day we stay here we run a higher risk of contracting this virus” adding that “it is a matter of days before we get infected if this keeps going like this. We have to get out of here now.”
There have been 7,875 reported cases of the coronavirus and 170 deaths.
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