UK's first Covid evacuees: 'I wish I'd stayed in Wuhan and missed flight'

Matt Raw, his wife Ying, and his mother returned on a repatriation flight from Wuhan

When Matt Raw was given an instruction to "get out of Wuhan" he took the advice seriously.

Exactly one year on, he wishes he had "never got on that flight" back to the UK.

Along with his wife and mother, the 39-year-old from Cheshire was among 83 Britons evacuated from the Chinese city on 31 January 2020.

Wuhan, which had been identified as the source of Covid-19, had gone into lockdown as the numbers of cases and deaths there and across eastern Asia rose alarmingly.

The flight to RAF Brize Norton was meant to bring British citizens and their families to safety, but Mr Raw says he feels he was "duped" and "brought here under false pretences".

In fact, he never planned to be on it originally.

Initially, the UK government had said the flight was reserved for British nationals.

That meant Mr Raw faced the prospect of leaving his wife, a Chinese citizen, behind.

As a result, they decided to stay put.

Mr Raw said he even left his tools by the front door because he was going to help build hospitals in Wuhan the next day.

• One year on: How the UK dealt with its first Covid case

• 100,000: Why is the UK's death toll so bad?

• Five days that shaped the outbreak

However, a few hours before the flight was due to depart, the UK government announced family members with Chinese passports were welcome to join their spouses.

Mr Raw says he got the news at 04:00 and they quickly "threw some things in a suitcase" and headed for the airport.

But he says he now wishes he had "never got on that flight".

"They lied to us," he says of the UK authorities. "We're being told to get out of Wuhan, 'come back to England, you'll be safe here'.

"We would have been safer and much more freer if we stayed in China.

"They tackled it short and sharp and locked down the cities and it was the right thing to do."

Check-in staff took precautions in Wuhan and masks were handed out on the plane

Fellow passenger Liping Duan says she remembers having misgivings about the safety of the flight itself.

When Wuhan was locked down, the 59-year-old Londoner was five days into her trip visiting family for Chinese New Year.

While glad to be on board the plane home, she says fears of catching the new virus made it a "pretty nerve-wracking" flight.

"Two English guys couldn't get on the plane, because they had a high temperature," she remembers.

"It was so quiet [on board]; you might hear a baby crying, but none of the adults were talking.

"I was trying to stay away from other people and wore my mask the whole time.

"I couldn't breathe properly and it was exhausting."

Ms Duan says she was shocked the coach driver who took them to Wirral was not wearing a mask

Despite the fact the flight landed two days after the UK had identified its first Covid-19 case, she says no-one at the airport wore any personal protection equipment.

"I told them, 'stand back, we've come from Wuhan', but nobody cared," she says.

Fears about the virus, though, meant everybody who had been on the flight was taken by coach, under police escort, to Arrowe Park Hospital in Wirral for two weeks' quarantine.

Mr Raw says the 180-mile (290km) journey was "gruelling to say the least", while Ms Duan says she was shocked to see that the coach driver was not even wearing a mask.

On arrival, they were moved into a staff accommodation block, which had been cordoned off behind the hospital, sharing apartments with communal kitchens.

Mr Raw's family were quarantined with another woman and her two-year-old daughter.

Fortunately, he says they "got on like a house on fire".

He says they were "quite happy", adding: "The staff at Arrowe Park were amazing."

He says one doctor "had put in about 157 hours" and that the "dedication" of those who cared for them was "astounding".

Even the usual winter weather helped with quarantine, since "the entire two-week period was rotten".

"I don't recall weather that vicious in a long time," Mr Raw remembers. "I thought 'I don't want to go out at all'."

One of those quarantined in the blocks left a note of thanks to the hospital's staff

The hospital's medical director Dr Nikki Stephenson says she remains "hugely proud" of the care her staff provided.

"We only had 48 hours' notice to expect their arrival, so it was a very frenetic time.

"The feedback was amazing and they all left with a full bill of health, despite not really knowing about coronavirus, so I am immensely proud of how it all went."

Ms Duan says they were all "so lucky" to have tested negative for coronavirus.

"If one person had it, we could have all got it."

Ms Duan had gone to Wuhan to celebrate Chinese New Year with family

After 14 days, the evacuees were allowed to leave.

Ms Duan says quarantine was a "special" experience but she was so "relieved" to return to her home in London.

She says her family in Wuhan now worry about her being in the UK because of coronavirus, but she tells them "people don't panic here".

Mr Raw and his family set up a new home in Knutsford.

He says he almost immediately had to begin dealing with abuse online from people who believed the first repatriation flights were responsible for the presence of Covid-19 in the UK.

That abuse, he says, continues to this day.

"It is heartbreaking that people actually think that. We were the ones who told the government their original plan [for us] to make our own way home to self-isolate after arriving was not on.

"We didn't want to bring it to England. None of us wanted that.

"We have done everything we possibly can - we've had one outing this year."

The moment Matt Raw left quarantine was captured by a host of media gathered outside the hospital

He says he cannot return to Wuhan because his mother has dementia and the strict quarantine procedures that are in place for entering China would be too difficult for her.

"It's another two weeks' isolation at each stage of the journey and individual person quarantine," he says.

"They don't do things half-heartedly. Hats off to them for doing that."

He says he is "one of the lucky ones" from the repatriation flights as he had already decided to look after his mother full-time, while others have told him they have been left bankrupt or still staying with family.

He adds that he still regrets the decision to board the plane.

"In Wuhan, it would have been uncomfortable in our small apartment for two or three months, but then they got rid of the virus and life has returned to normal," he says.

"I wish I'd stayed in bed and gone to help build that hospital.

"Here, we have my little house and my little fish pond in the Cheshire countryside, but we're trapped here.

"It's still our prison."

Why not follow BBC North West on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? You can also send story ideas to [e-mail]