'I was one of the Wuhan Covid bus drivers - and I'd do it again'

It's five years since he had his face splashed across the news, and Andy Simonds still gets asked about the image - anxious expression, hands gripping the wheel, as a medic in a hazmat suit is sat behind him.

"I've seen people on social media question 'how is he, is he alive?' 'Is he dead?' 'What happened to the poor driver?'," he says now with a wry smile.

The job that day? Transporting passengers who had just landed in the UK from Wuhan, China to a secure medical facility - at a time when coronavirus fears were spreading rapidly.

The saga for Andy, 62, who now lives in Newport, even included a call from chief medic Chris Witty offering him advice.

With concerns about the virus rising, he also had to flee a shopping centre after being recognised as one of the bus drivers involved in transporting people.

But he insisted: "I'd do it again.

"Because I'd want someone to do that for me, and take me home out of that situation."

On 29 January 2020, Andy was called in to his manager's office at Horseman Coaches, the Reading-based company where he worked.

Coronavirus fears were already sweeping through China, and an urgent evacuation flight had been arranged to bring stranded Brits home from the virus epicentre, Wuhan.

Andy was told the company had agreed to transport those passengers from RAF Brize Norton, where they would be landing, to a secure quarantine facility on the Wirral, Merseyside.

Although he and his colleagues tentatively agreed – thanks in part to a £100 bonus on offer – there were still "concerns" regarding what was a relatively unknown virus at the time.

Andy Simonds' coach pictured arriving at Arrowe Park Hospital on 31 January 2020, where the passengers from Wuhan were to be kept in quarantine

"So that evening, I went home and phoned 111," said Andy.

"They said someone would get back to me."

Shortly afterwards, he was called by none other than England's Chief Medical Officer Sir Chris Whitty.

"At the time I didn't know who he was, and he answered the questions and doubts that my colleagues had, and reassured me," he said.

"The following morning I went to work, told my colleagues, and we were all happy to do it."

'It turned my stomach'

On 31 January – a day after the first confirmed Covid cases in the UK – Andy and his colleagues arrived at Brize Norton in a "relaxed mood", having been assured of the low risk.

But as they awaited the passengers from Wuhan, more medical staff, police officers, military personnel and government officials started arriving, and the gravity of the situation dawned on them.

"When the officials came in, it was then a reality situation, especially when the briefing was given to us, and I realised this is serious," said Andy.

"On a personal level, it turned my stomach – it was 'oh, this is real'."

The coaches were escorted by police riders on their journey from RAF Brize Norton to Merseyside

Setting off from Oxfordshire, the convoy of coaches was immediately caught in a media storm as cameras captured their departure.

The pictures sparked controversy online, with social media users questioning why the bus drivers had no protective masks or clothing, while the medics sat behind them were fully kitted in protective suits.

The reality, says Andy, was safer than it appeared.

"Having [the medic] sat behind me, it was like Darth Vader being there, because of the breathing through the apparatus," he said.

"It was amusing. We had conversation.

"He was basically there to react if there was an emergency on the back of the coach. It was proactive, rather than reactive."

The passengers were sat at the back of the coach, and Andy had a window open – a precaution which only later became standard Covid prevention practice.

"Whilst there was a lot of questions – why hasn't he got a mask on? – we didn't perceive there to be a risk," Andy added.

"And to this day, touch wood, I've never had Covid."

'We didn't want confrontation'

It was not long before Andy saw the picture of himself at the wheel – though again, his seemingly worried expression at the time was not quite what it seemed.

"When I saw the picture my first thought was, 'you miserable so and so'," he says.

"But I was just focusing on the road. We had media, paparazzi, all lined on both sides, flash guns going off.

"And my thought was, 'wow, what's going on here?'. Because we didn't realise what impact it was going to have."

The bucket hat pictured on his dashboard was more deliberately placed, he admits – a nod to his Welsh roots.

"[I knew] the Welsh football family would recognise it straight away," said Reading-born Andy.

"It goes all over the world with me.

"The joke amongst ourselves was that the Welshman driving the Covid bus only needs this bucket hat – the Englishman behind needs full hazmat.

"But obviously in the circumstances, the seriousness of it, no-one knew at that time what the future was going to bring."

After arriving at Arrowe Park Hospital that evening, Andy and his fellow coach drivers were put up in a hotel, still oblivious to the extent of the media attention.

"It was only the next day that we started seeing it on the breakfast news and we realised the impact it was having nationwide," said Andy.

Still in the previous day's clothes, the drivers went to a nearby retail park to pick up supplies but were recognised, and had to flee through the back exit of a store.

"We did feel, not at risk, but uncomfortable – we didn't want the confrontation," said Andy.

"We were just doing our jobs.

"We returned to the hotel with explicit instructions not to leave, because of the potential risk in causing more uproar."

Andy, a keen Welsh football follower, said many on social media had joked that the bucket hat was all the protective equipment he'd needed

Two days later, they drove back to their base, with the deep-cleaned coaches travelling at 20 minute intervals so as not to draw further attention.

The drivers were told to return to work in two weeks – but were not given any instruction to self-isolate.

As a well-known football coach in the area, Andy decided that it would be better for him to take a short holiday to Egypt rather than show his face locally.

"A lot of people knew me in Reading, so I didn't want any conflict amongst the community there with going out," he explained.

He was then almost caught up in a second coronavirus incident, having travelled to Italy to watch a football match shortly before part of that country went into lockdown in early March 2020.

'I don't feel any negatives'

By 23 March, the UK also found itself in coronavirus lockdown, as the trickle of cases from early in the year became a full scale pandemic.

With overseas travel grinding to a halt, Andy left his job as a coach driver later that year and retrained as a telecommunications engineer.

He also moved back to his family's homeland, settling in Caerleon, Newport.

"It's a completely different way of life – I've got the mountains up the road, the sea just down the road," he said.

"I wish I'd done it sooner."

There are no regrets, however, when it comes to looking back on the role he played in one of the Covid pandemic's big early moments.

"It was an adverse time, but we came through it," says Andy.

"And I'd do it again.

"If I was in that situation, I'd want someone to transport me back home and make me safe.

"Wherever we had to repatriate people across the world in certain incidents, someone would have to do that job.

"So I don't feel any negatives as to how I did it, and why I did it."