Coronavirus: Sudbury couple stranded in India 'relieved' to be home

Steven Hancock and his partner Ann Williams were stuck in India for 35 days

A British couple who spent days in "grim" conditions after contracting Covid-19 in India have said they are "relieved" to be back home.

Steven Hancock and Ann Williams, from Suffolk, travelled to Kerala as part of a group 14-day tour on 6 March.

They enjoyed five days of their trip before they tested positive for the virus, and were then quarantined in hospital or in isolation for 35 days.

Mr Hancock, 61, from Sudbury, said it was "not the holiday I had planned".

He said he spent 18 days in hospital after testing positive, during which he had "no symptoms".

At first, he said they were taken to a state hospital which he described as "very grim".

"It was quite shocking, it was very dirty, very basic, the food was very poor, we lost a lot of weight within a week," he said.

'Waiting game'

Mr Hancock said they spent nine days in that hospital before they were transferred to a private hospital.

"I was very worried symptoms might develop and I might be seriously ill but that didn't occur, so it just became a waiting game," he said.

After a negative test came back, the couple were discharged from hospital and put in isolation in a hotel.

They said they had to then wait for a repatriation flight, which took eight days.

The couple arrived back in the UK on Thursday, and Mr Hancock said it was "fantastic" to be home.

He thanked their local MP James Cartlidge for his "hard work" in helping to repatriate them.

Mr Cartlidge, the Conservative MP for South Suffolk, said he was "delighted" Mr Hancock was "back in Sudbury, here in the sunshine".