Coronavirus: TV doctor slams Tenerife hotel quarantine measures as hundreds of Brits remain stuck

TV doctor Hilary Jones has blasted quarantine at a coronavirus-hit Tenerife hotel after guests said staff were unable to enforce the measures.

Some 168 Britons in Tenerife are currently confined to the H10 Costa Adeje Palace in the south-west of the island, after at least four guests were diagnosed with coronavirus.

All of those on site were initially told to stay in their rooms but guests began to ignore the advice.

Local authorities have now said people without symptoms can move around the hotel, including to the pool and bar.

Social media photos show people not wearing face masks, sunbathing and sharing buffet meals, with fears that the virus will spread rapidly among the guests.

Another holidaymaker said an aqua gym class was held on Thursday morning in the communal hotel pool.

Steve McHardy, 53, an estate agent from Kinross, in eastern Scotland, and his wife Susan, also 53, are among those stuck in the hotel.

During an interview during ITV’s Lorraine on Thursday, Mrs McHardy told Dr Jones that they were supposed to be enjoying a four-day sunshine break to celebrate a birthday.

But she told the TV doctor they have now been told they will need to stay in Tenerife for at least 14 days.

She added: “We didn’t go out in the beginning but yesterday we went to reception – you are allowed to go out with your masks on.

“At the beginning, we were getting food parcels put to our rooms, but now the only food you can get is at the restaurant so we have to go out now.”

But Dr Jones responded by strongly criticising the isolation measures at the hotel.

Read more: Tenerife hotel placed in quarantine after doctor tests positive for coronavirus

He warned that if somebody was diagnosed on the last day of the 14-day quarantine, the entire 14-day period across the hotel would need to start again.

He said “At the moment, what’s happening in that hotel is not self-isolation because people are sunbathing round the pool, going to the restaurant – you are in a mass quarantine together.

Read more: Guests at coronavirus-hit Tenerife hotel ignore quarantine to lie on sunbeds

“My worry, and your worry, will be this – that on day 14 when you are ready to come home and somebody tests positive, you’re back in quarantine for another 14 days because you will have been exposed.

“That’s the worry if people don’t self-isolate. You haven’t been given logical guidance to follow and nor is anybody else adhering to that, even if it was there.

“You could potentially be in quarantine for (another) 14 days if on day 14 somebody tests positive.”

A 60-year-old man from Derbyshire told PA: “I don’t think confusion would be the right word to describe it – they are just not able to enforce quarantine conditions.

Read more: Two new coronavirus cases in UK as patients lfall il in Italy and Tenerife

“People are able to walk around the buildings and some are even going in the pool. People are walking about and interacting with each other and not wearing masks.”

The Foreign Office has no current plans to evacuate the Britons, but is keeping the quarantine measures under review with Spanish authorities. Meanwhile, the British consulate in Tenerife has distributed letters to those affected.

Meanwhile, two more people have tested positive for virus in England, bringing the total number of people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the UK to 15.

Several schools in the UK have closed while others have sent pupils home for fear they may have been exposed to coronavirus during ski trips to northern Italy.

In Italy, the number of people infected grew to 322, or 45% in 24 hours, and deaths of patients with the virus rose to 11.