A SOUTHAMPTON nurse was told she “brought coronavirus” to the UK and racially abused on her way home from work.

An emergency department senior sister, who works at the University Hospital Southampton (UHS), was racially abused and threatened by a group of teenagers as she walked home from a 12 hour shift on Monday, March 23.

The nurse, who has asked not to be named and is from the Philippines, was told “you brought coronavirus to our country”, “go home to China”, and “you’re awful” by a group of eight youths.

She was also threatened with violence.

She said: “On my way home today there were a group of teenagers across the road. When they saw me they started shouting at me saying ‘you brought Corona to our country, go home to China, you’re awful’.

“One of them said ‘shall we take her down?’ then the other said ‘we might get arrested’.

“I carried on walking, ignored them, didn’t have the energy to say anything, went home to my family and just felt numb.”

Hampshire Police have confirmed that the incident has been reported and that investigations are ongoing.

Sarah Charters, Consultant Nurse at the UHS emergency department, said: “Our staff are facing immense pressure at the moment – both physically and psychologically.

“We are coping very well but receiving hate-filled threats of physical violence like this add another layer of stress for our team.

“No one has the right to threaten violence to another under any circumstance, but this incident is worsened by it being a hate crime.

“Our nurse was targeted due to her ethnicity.

“She felt frightened being by herself and faced by eight threatening youths.

“We have had such an outpouring of kindness and appreciation from the majority of the population, it is a real shame that uninformed and unpleasant people such as these feel it is ok to threaten our staff.”

The Trust will continue to report any further incidents.