The woman had developed flu-like symptoms after returning home from a trip to Asia. She sparked “alarm” at James Cook University hospital in Middlesbrough when she turned up at A&E fearing she had caught Coronavirus.

She had visited the emergency unit after a sign from the ambulance bay, which read “NHS111 Coronavirus” with an arrow pointing up, failed to adequately lead her to the correct unit.

Staff at A&E were said to be unable to give her “practice assistance” and instead left the potential victim of the deadly and highly contagious virus wandering around the hospital site helplessly trying to find the isolation unit.

She woman, who has remained anonymous, said: “We went to the general outpatient reception to be met with alarm but no practice assistance.

“After visiting another clinic reception we were advised to cross the road and try the staff office.”

The feared Coronavirus victim, who was accompanied by her husband and son, was then left wandering the hospital’s various departments desperately trying to locate the isolation unit.

They even ended up in the site’s oncology unit on their travels to find the correct department for Coronavirus patients.

The woman came into close contact with a number of the hospital’s staff while trying to locate the isolation unit.

Eventually the family were directed back to James Cook’s main reception.

She added: “The receptionist enquired and we were told that there was a ‘pod’ outside the building to the left.

“Try as we might we couldn’t find it and I re-entered the main building to ask for help.

“We were then directed by a member of reception staff to a door further down the building.”

The woman and her family were held in the “freezing and dirty” makeshift pod before tests were carried out and they sent home and told to self-quarantine themselves to the house.

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Public Health England confirmed to the family a few days later that tests had returned negative.

Since the incident, James Cook University hospital has updated signs and posters to make it clearer where the site’s Coronavirus isolation unit is located.

The hospital also apologised to the family for the chaos of their visit.

A hospital spokesman told The Guardian: “As the national and international picture evolved quickly, this was also associated with some changes in the definition of what the area would be used for which I believe led to the posters having some confusing wording and instructions.

“The production of robust signage obviously takes a few days and we were aware that the signage was not optimum however, what we failed to do was ensure that staff at all potential entrances to the hospital were briefed in how to direct people to the assessment area around the perimeter of the hospital.”

More than 1,800 people have died of Coronavirus since the outbreak earlier this month.

The virus – officially named as Covid19 – broke out in Wuhan in China but has since spread worldwide.

Across the globe there are more than 73,000 cases of the deadly virus.

In the UK there are a total of nine confirmed victims of Covid19, and a further 4,501 people have been tested.

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