'Did he get a half day?': Disturbing photo of driver on coronavirus bus goes viral

A photograph of a “poor” bus driver behind the wheel of a coronavirus bus as a man in a hazmat suit looks on has gone viral.

The driver was photographed driving at Brize Norton, west of Oxford in England, on January 30.

The bus was being used to transport 83 British people and 27 foreign nationals who had been evacuated from China’s city of Wuhan which is the epicentre of the virus.

The picture was shared on Facebook with people concerned for the driver – who appeared to be frightened as he sat behind the wheel. It’s been shared more than 21,000 times.

One man responded saying the driver has the “fear of God in his face”.

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“Did he get time and a half with a day off in lieu do you reckon?” another man wrote.

One woman called him a “poor bloke”.

“I still don’t understand why the driver didn’t even have a mask on let alone a suit?” another woman wrote.

Was the driver safe from coronavirus?

A number of other drivers were also pictured not wearing hazmat suits.

Horseman Coaches, which owns the buses, told The Liverpool Echo the drivers did not need protective clothing as all passengers who were on the bus had been screened multiple times. None had coronavirus.

A spokesperson for the company told the paper everyone of the British citizens had “been quarantined for the past eight days in China and none of the individuals on the plane presented any signs of the virus”.

They added Public Health England told them the drivers would not be required to wear protective clothing either.

All the buses will also receive “military grade” cleaning while the five drivers used to transport the people from Wuhan were quarantined at home for 10 days as a precaution.

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