Havana, March 18 (RHC)—The repatriation to the U.K of some one thousand travelers who were on board the MS Braemar cruise ship was underway Wednesday evening. Among the passengers, there were 5 people diagnosed with COVID-19 and some 50 passengers and crew in isolation with respiratory symptoms.

Most of the passengers and crew are departing from Havana's international airport to London on three flights chartered to British Airways, while a fourth plane would take infected patients to Wiltshire Air Base, in southwest England.

The British Ambassador to Havana, Anthony Stokes was at the Mariel port terminal, about some 25 miles west of the capital, during the docking and disembarking of the travelers.

On a message posted by the official Twitter account of the British Embassy in Havana, Ambassador Stokes said he was conscious this had been a difficult and uncertain journey for the passengers and the crew and that he was very grateful to the Cuban government for enabling this operation to go ahead.

He added that they had been working closely together since Friday to pull everything together and were determined to protect the health of the passengers and crew, the Cubans and everybody working on site, as well as to get all the passengers back to the U.K. safely.

“Estoy muy agradecido con el gobierno cubano por aceptar realizar esta operación”.

El Embajador de Su Majestad en