A SCOTTISH family desperate to get home from the US have told of their coronavirus travel fears.

Alex Wilson – a Glasgow councillor – travelled to the US with wife Pamela and children Adam and Cara on a landmark break three weeks ago.

The Orlando trip was organised to celebrate Alex’s 50th birthday 
and for the first few days all attractions were operating as normal.

However, major theme parks and other attractions began closing shortly after their arrival as Covid-19 cases in the US spiked.

As of yesterday afternoon, there were 48,000 known cases and at least 600 deaths.

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Now the family are “checking flight information every hour” after their carrier British Airways cancelled their flight home, leaving them to reorganise their trans-Atlantic travel. Currently booked onto a succession of three flights home, the family fears further delays could put them at risk of contracting the virus.

Alex told The National: “We got here before it all really started taking off and we thought it would be okay. But it has really ramped up and, I think, taken a lot of people by surprise in Scotland and in the US.

“I couldn’t believe how quickly it’s been going up.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has advised UK citizens not 
to undertake any non-essential travel for the next 30 days and to return immediately if commercial flights are still available.

The SNP councillor said: “We have had no symptoms and we haven’t come across anyone who has. We have a flight to Miami, another to Heathrow and another one back up to Scotland and of course we’ll isolate ourselves when we get back. 

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“But we’ve had no real advice for travellers and we don’t really know what we are coming back to. 

“Our flights have been changing right, left and centre.

“The first flight is quite quiet but the main one back to the UK is really busy. They’re repatriating a lot of people. 

“Obviously the air on planes is recirculated and there may be people on there who might not have shown symptoms yet, so we are worried. 

“It’s really worrying for us.”

Since the shut-downs began, the family have spent most of their 
time in their rented villa, using local supermarkets for supplies. There 
have been the same runs there on essential items as have been seen in 
the UK, with shortages of toilet roll and other sundries.

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Alex described an air of tension amongst the local population, many of whom work in hospitality and other low-paying industries. 

He said: “The lines in Wal-Mart have been massive, there are loads and loads of people wearing masks and gloves. 

“Every time you go to a petrol station or use a shopping trolley, there’s a staff member who’ll come along with a spray bottle of disinfectant and clean down everything you’ve been touching. They are really on 
the ball and they are on top of it but when we first got here there were only 1700 cases in the States, so even despite all the effort they’re making it is still spreading.

“Restaurant staff have been really worried about their jobs. They only make $5 (£4.26) an hour and they rely on tips, so when customer numbers started to go down that really affected them.

“Some were saying they’d rather be paid off because they would make more on social security than they were taking home in their pay.”

Disney and Universal Studios parks have all closed in an unprecedented move, which has also extended to attractions elsewhere in the US. 

St Patrick’s Day parades were called off in several cities, while 
the NBA basketball and NHL hockey leagues have scrapped their seasons.