Ryanair passenger with coronavirus who was hauled off flight by Hazmat-suited medics had 'no symptoms' and received a text seconds before take off 'saying he was positive', claims fellow traveller

The suspected Covid-infected passenger dragged off a plane by Hazmat-suited medics showed 'no symptoms' and received a text only seconds before take-off 'saying he was positive', a fellow flyer has claimed.

The Ryanair flight was allowed to make its journey from Stansted to Italy after the dramatic incident, which saw no other travellers asked to self-isolate on arrival, according to Fionn Murphy, from west London.

The 21-year-old, who spoke previously of his shock that he was able to complete the trip to Pisa, where he could be unknowingly walking around with coronavirus.

Today, he reveled how the plan was seconds from take off after reversing, ready to taxi to the runway before the dramatic intervention.

He told the Sun: 'The doors were shut, we were ready to fly... it was literally last minute.'

'I got up and walked towards the back of the plane to grab one of the empty seats back there and the air hostess told me to sit down as we were just about to take off. And then everything stopped.'

'At first I thought it may have been because of the result of a temperature check, but I didn't remember there being any.'

The allegedly infected person and his travel companion were taken off the aircraft and moved to the airport's isolation area, where they were met by health authorities.

Their seats and the overhead cabin were disinfected before the plane was allowed to fly to Pisa an hour and 40 minutes behind schedule, according to Flight Radar.

The passenger, who has not been named, breached coronavirus quarantine restrictions by leaving their home and boarding the flight.

Mr Murphy, a musician who was travelling with his 59-year-old mother Fliss, told the Mirror: 'He's put everyone at risk.

'We could be all now infecting Pisa. The plane had pushed back and it was ready to take off and it just stopped suddenly.'

He added: 'The crew said the fire brigade was coming and 10 minutes later a fire truck appeared outside the plane and got dressed in full hazmat suits. Honestly it was scary. They came on and it was like ''oh s***, this is real''.'

The chaotic flight came as:

NHS Test and Trace: What to do if you've been in contact with a person with coronavirus

If you're told you've been in contact with someone who has coronavirus:

Advice on NHS England says you should stay at home for 14 days from the day you were last in contact with that person as it can take this long for symptoms to appear. You are also required to do the following:

If you get symptoms of coronavirus:

The Government's Test and Trace system is getting worse as figures yesterday revealed that call handlers reached a record-low of just 72.6 per cent of infected patients last week.

It's the fifth week in a row the number of Covid-19 cases who have been tracked has fallen, dropping from the best performance of 82.8 per cent in the week ending July 22.

Scientists have repeatedly warned at least 80 per cent of coronavirus patients must be contacted and interviewed in order for the system — which Boris Johnson has called 'world-beating' — to work effectively.

Department of Health data released yesterday also showed a third of people who tested positive for the coronavirus and referred to the system were not reached within 24 hours.

It's crucial for the system to work rapidly, so that close contacts of Covid-19 cases who may unknowingly have the virus are tracked down and told to self isolate before they can spread the infection further.

It comes as Matt Hancock yesterday defended his plan to pay people on low incomes £13 a day to self-isolate, even though critics said the payments would not be enough to stop people going to work.

The Government's Test and Trace system is getting worse as figures yesterday revealed that call handlers reached a record-low of just 72.6 per cent of infected patients last week

The figures yesterday also add to evidence that Britain's outbreak is not spiralling out of control as feared, with the number of positive cases dropping almost nine per cent in a week.

HANCOCK DEFENDS HIS PLAN TO PAY £13 A DAY TO BRITONS SELF-ISOLATING

Matt Hancock yesterday launched a furious defence of his plan to pay people on low incomes £13 a day to self-isolate as critics said the payments would not be enough to stop people going to work.

From September 1 people who receive Universal Credit or Working Tax Credit who are required to self-isolate, who are unable to work from home and who are in Covid-19 hotspots will benefit from the new payment scheme.

Eligible people who test positive for the virus will receive £130 for their 10-day period of self-isolation while other members of their household, who under current rules must isolate for 14 days, will get £182.

The scheme will initially be trialled in Blackburn with Darwen, Pendle and Oldham - areas which are currently subject to local lockdown measures.

The Government hopes the payments will boost compliance with requests from NHS Test and Trace for people to stay at home, with Mr Hancock pointing out the money will be 'in addition' to other benefits.

But critics believe the payments are far too small and many people will still feel that they cannot afford to stay at home.

A total of 6,115 people were diagnosed between August 13 and 19, down from 6,656 the week before.

This represents 1.4 and 1.5 per cent of all tests taken, respectively, proving that cases have not fallen just as a result of less testing.

Of those cases, 72.6 per cent were reached by call handlers. In comparison, the rate was 79 per cent the week before. Data also shows it is even worse than the 73.4 per cent recorded in the first week of the scheme.

Of those who were contacted, only 69.7 per cent were reached within 24 hours. Five per cent weren't tracked down for at least three days.

Some 75.9 per cent gave at least one phone number of a close contact, a figure that has dropped every week since mid-July.

But in positive developments, 75.5 per cent of close contacts were reached, up from 71.6 per cent in the previous week.

But it's still a dramatically lower number than the 91.1 per cent of cases who were reached in the first week of launching, on May 28.

Experts suspect that people do not pick up the phone to contact tracers because it is an unrecognised number.

Head of the NHS Test and Trace Baroness Dido Harding, said England 'now has the capacity to test for coronavirus and trace contacts on an unprecedented scale'.

She said: 'This week marks a milestone for NHS Test and Trace, which has now been in operation for more than three months.

'The statistics... show every week we consistently reach the majority of people testing positive and their contacts, and have now reached almost 300,000 people who may have unknowingly passed the virus on.

'We will continue to build the service further to reach more and more people and to scale up our testing capacity.

'I urge everyone to use NHS Test and Trace to help everyone get back to a more normal way of life.'

Danny Mortimer, deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: 'The latest test and trace figures show a yo-yo effect with vital improvements in some areas balanced out by steps back in others.'

Local health protection teams showed to have a higher success rate than the centralised system once again, proving that a 'boots on ground' approach is more effective for contact tracing.

Some 95.6 per cent of close contacts were reached and asked to self-isolate in the week to August 19, compared to 61.6 per cent of cases handled by call centres.

Various local authority councils took matters into their own hands and launched local contact-tracing operations to supplement the national system, before ministers offered local systems extra resources to strengthen their response.

The figures also show test turnaround times between 13 and 19 August have fallen.

The proportion of recent close contacts handled by call centres that were contacted

More people are being referred to the NHS tracing system reflecting an increase in cases

Testing turnaround times have also dipped since the record high at the start of July. But they are starting to improve for home test kits and satellite centres

Just one fifth of tests from all test sites were received within 24 hours of a test being taken.

The number of people who got their result returned in 24 hours after visiting a regional testing site — mostly drive-throughs — was the worst yet.

Almost two-thirds (63.5 per cent) were still waiting for their result after 24 hours, up from 42.2 per cent the week before and 8 per cent in the week ending July 1.

But at last, the 24-hour target was improved for satellite test centres — places like hospitals and care homes that urgently need results — and home kits after weeks of dismal figures.

But still only 5.9 and 6.4 per cent of people in those testing categories got their result back in 24 hours.

The PM had pledged that, by the end of June, the results of 100 per cent of all in-person tests would be back within 24 hours.

Experts say getting test results fast and carrying out contact tracing immediately is vital to stopping the spread of coronavirus because there is only a short window to alert people that they are at risk of infecting others without yet knowing they're ill.

But those who take a home test kit now have to wait 71 hours on average to find out if they have Covid-19.

The average amount of time it takes for test results to come back from all routes has increased, apart from those done at satellite test centres.

Fears of a second wave have grown over the past month, with official data showing the average number of daily cases has doubled since mid-July. Growing outbreaks in Europe have also spooked ministers.

But the Department of Health figures and separate data from the Office for National Statistics , which tracks the size of the outbreak through swab tests of thousands of people, suggest that the number of cases is shrinking.

Last week it claimed 2,400 people are catching the virus in England each day, down 37 per cent on the week before.

Statisticians claimed the outbreak has 'levelled off'. For comparison, the ONS estimated that around 4,200 people were getting infected each day at the end of July.

However, a senior government source told journalists last Friday that data on growth rates and R values suggest cases are 'trending upwards, very gently'.

The official said: 'We are not seeing fast increase here, but I do think we are on a positive slope and its gently increasing.'

SAGE warned the reproduction rate — the average number of people each coronavirus patient infects — could now be above the dreaded level of one.

The Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies estimates the R value is now between 0.9 and 1.1. Experts say the R needs to stay below one or Governments risk losing control of the epidemic and the virus could start to spread exponentially again.

But the estimate is based on three week old data due to the lag in time between Covid-19 patients falling ill and appearing in the statistics, meaning it does not paint a real-time picture of the UK's current epidemic.

And it can be skewed upwards by local clusters of infections, which has been seen in swathes of the North West of England.

Sickening moment maskless 'Karen' COUGHS in the face of grocery store customer, then claims she doesn't have to wear a mask because she 'isn't sick'

A woman was captured on camera following a customer through a supermarket as she coughs on her after claiming she does not need a mask because she is not sick. Video of the incident, which has garnered hundreds of thousands of views on Twitter alone, allegedly took place in a Su per Saver in Lincoln, Nebraska according to Twitter user @davenewworld_2. In it, an unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of the customer recording her. Scroll down for video An unidentified woman was captured dramatically coughing as she smiles saying 'Excuse me! I'm coming through' in the direction of a woman recording her A woman was captured on camera following a customer as she coughs on her in a supermarket without a mask on claiming she does not need one because she is not sick @chaiteabugz #karen #covid #karens #karensgonewild #karensalert #masks we were just wearing a mask at the store. ¿ o

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