First British Man Tested For Coronavirus Speaks About Quarantine

The first man to be tested for coronavirus in the UK has spoken out about being quarantined.

Writing in The Telegraph, 27-year-old Craig Dillon told how he had flown from Australia via China and Bangkok.

He said: "Everyone was wearing masks except me but I couldn't buy one at the airport because they'd all sold out.

"I thought I might have flu because I had a bad cough and was feeling weak and tired but I put it down to jetlag.

"I had twice been evacuated by the bush fires while I was staying with my family in New South Wales so I wondered if the smoke inhalation had affected my lungs."

Despite the fact that he was feeling unwell, he made it into work the day he'd got back, despite being asked to walk through the temperature scanner twice while he was at the airport.

He continued: "I dosed myself up on the flight home from Australia and when I landed back at Heathrow on Monday there were no checks."

But when he woke up in the night sweating and feeling ill, he called 111. When he was asked if he'd been to China recently, the NHS Direct service told him they would send an ambulance, but he decided to make his own way there due to how close he lives to the hospital.

Sky News

He said: "When I arrived I was so weak I had to lean against the wall.

"This doctor asked if I was okay and when I replied: "I'm feeling really ill, I just came back from China," he literally grabbed me by the arm and led me back outside the hospital.

"A nurse came out and gave me a mask and then I was shown to this secret door around the back.

"I was told to walk down the corridor and arrived in this hospital room with a bed in the middle with all this equipment around it - completely prepped and ready to go.

"It had a big one-way glass window with an intercom in it so you could talk through the glass.

"I was feeling so bad I was curled up on the bed and all I could hear was this vacuum cleaner noise. When they wrote notes they would hold them up against the glass so the people outside could read them."

After waiting for three hours for the results, Craig was relieved to find out he didn't have the virus but was diagnosed with pneumonia.

Topics: World News

Amelia Ward

Amelia is a journalist at LADbible. After studying journalism at Liverpool John Moores and Salford Uni (don't ask), she went into PR and then the world of music. After a few years working on festivals and events, she went back to her roots. In her spare time, Amelia likes music, Liverpool FC, and spending good, quality time with her cat, Paul. You can contact Amelia at [email protected].

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