The newlywed wife of a British coronavirus patient who was hauled off a cruise ship during his honeymoon today said she had been left ‘bereft’ and ‘in ribbons’.
Wendy Marshall Steele, who married Alan Steele last month, said she did not know when she would next see her husband after he tested positive for the virus on board the Diamond Princess in Japan.
Writing on Facebook from the quarantined cruise liner in Yokohama Bay, she said she would not be able to care for him despite being a nurse.
‘They have just taken Alan away. I am in ribbons. He is healthy and not displaying any symptoms,’ she said. ‘I am bereft… if he ends up being ill I can’t look after him. NOT only as a wife… but as a nurse.
‘Apologies if this sounds over emotional but to have your husband taken away from you. Not sure how long it will be until I see him again.
‘In my working life my colleagues would say “balls of steel” but not today. Counting down the days until I can laugh about stupid things with my husband again.’
Mr Steele, from Wolverhampton, said he was not yet showing symptoms of the virus and hopes he may just be a ‘carrier’ but faces a lengthy quarantine in hospital on the mainland.
He becomes the second UK national known to have the virus, after a businessman who had recently flown back from Singapore tested positive in Brighton yesterday.
Mr Steele was one of 41 people who learned they had the virus after 171 remaining test results came back on Friday, trebling the ship’s total of virus patients from 20 to 61.
The newly diagnosed also include 21 Japanese nationals, as well as eight Americans, five Canadians, five Australians and an Argentine.