A Kent couple who have been quarantined on a cruise ship for weeks are preparing to come home.

Elaine and John Spencer, from Sittingbourne, are among the 3,700 passengers on the Diamond Princess where there was an outbreak of coronavirus.

They joined the ship in Singapore on January 6 for a 29-night trip around South-East Asia and Japan.

But they found themselves confined to their cabin after fellow passengers were confirmed to have the virus and have been stranded in the Pacific off Yokohama.

Elaine, a health and social care trainer, told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme: “We’ve now got our papers, we’ve been given negative results, so we don’t have to go to hospital and we can leave.

"I want to see my family, want to see my grandchildren. We are ready to go."

Mrs Spencer said she was "relieved" to be going home having criticised the Foreign Office for how slowly it had reacted to the plight of British people on the ship.

Passengers from the United States, Australia, Hong Kong and South Korea have already left.

"We have a situation where everyone else seemed to be going and it was like everyone going to a big party and we were not invited," she said.

"It just seemed to go on and on and no one seemed to make a decision.

"We only got tested on Sunday. A lot of people already had their results. We only got ours this morning.

"Everyone else seemed to be going and it was like everyone going to a big party and we were not invited"

"They put them under the door to let us know they were negative."

She added that she was very pleased to be heading back to UK soil.

Asked if she would go on another cruise, she said: "At the moment, we are going to be staying on land for quite a while."

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