FOUR patients who tested positive for coronavirus at Arrowe Park Hospital following evacuation from a Japanese cruise ship have been transferred to specialist infection treatment centres in Liverpool, Sheffield and Newcastle.

They were among 32 passengers who arrived at the Wirral hospital on Saturday night, after spending two weeks quarantined on The Diamond Princess liner.

The four - confirmed to be British nationals - are the first diagnoses of the Covid-19 strain in people brought back to the UK on repatriation.

One is being treated at the Royal Hallamshire in Sheffield, one at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and two at the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Professor Keith Willet, NHS strategic incident director for coronavirus said: "The four patients with coronavirus have now been transferred from Arrowe Park to specialist NHS infection centres in Sheffield, Liverpool and Newcastle.

"These specialist centres are well prepared to deal with cases and earlier this year, the Newcastle unit successfully treated and discharged two patients who had contracted the virus.

"I would like to thank the excellent NHS staff who managed the transfers today as well as those who will now be caring for these patients.

"We’ve seen in communities across the country a calm response to confirmed and potential cases of coronavirus, which will continue to be important as more of us might need to self-isolate for a time, to protect ourselves, our families and the community."

Wirral Teaching Hospital NHS chief executive Janelle Holmes said: "We always had a plan in place for this eventuality – and this has been carried out successfully.

"I want to repeat and reassure that we are continuing to work with national experts from PHE at all times and they are on site, along with local infection control experts and other health care professionals"