Cruise ship couple from Newbury in coronavirus lockdown

Pair's worst fears have been realised following captain's announcement

A COUPLE trapped on a cruise ship say their worst fears have just been realised – an on-board outbreak of coronavirus.

In this week's edition of our sister publication, the Newbury Weekly News, the pair described how they were trapped off Barbados while desperately trying to get home.

Les and Sally Osmond, who live in Racecourse Road, Newbury are among nearly 400 British passengers trapped on board the Coral Princess due to coronavirus quarantine measures - but thought to have been free of the virus until a few hours ago.

Mr Osmond, aged 68, is vice-president of Newbury Rotary Club and 65-year-old Sally is a governor of Spurcroft Primary School, Thatcham, and Newbury College.

Mrs Osmond said: “We set out for the holiday of a lifetime early in March; a holiday which would take us from Santiago in Chile, down the coast of Chile past Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego and around Cape Horn, experiencing wonderful scenery and places along the way.

“After that we were headed to the Falkland Islands.”

They were due to continue the cruise and to have returned home on Tuesday, March 24.

She added: “So much for the plans – now we have to face reality.”

The ship was refused permission to dock at Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands because of coronavirus quarantine measures, then turned away from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Argentina.

The Coral Princess then tried to resupply at Montevideo in Uruguay, but Mrs Osmond said: “We ended up having to bypass Montevideo as we were again denied permission to enter the port.

“By now people were getting worried, relatives at home were trying to find out what was going on and getting confused messages from the travel companies and official sources.

“We were told that the Coral Princess and our situation has even been raised in Parliament.”

After more confusion and cancelled stops, the couple were told that flights back to Britain were unavailable anywhere

Mrs Osmond said: “In spite of us having been a disease-free ship and declared virus-free several times during our travels, passengers were warned that if they did leave the ship, but then needed to come back because a flight had not occurred, they would have to go into isolation in their cabins for 14 days.”

But there have been dramatic developments since the NWN story was published.

Mrs Osmond said: "The ship's captain has announced that there had been an unusually high number of people reporting to the medical centre that they had flu like symptoms.

"He asked anyone else who felt ill to contact the ship's doctor.

"Unfortunately that brought forward more people and as a result we were all asked to return to our cabins.

"We are now in lockdown – no one is allowed to leave their cabin and indications are we will stay this way until Fort Lauderdale.

"We successfully stopped in Barbados and took on supplies and are now back at sea heading for Florida.

"We must wait and see what happens next."