Travellers coming into England will have to quarantine in a hotel amid concerns about new COVID-19 variants, the PM is expected to announce
Prime Minister Boris Johnson will be discussing proposals for a hotel quarantine plan with ministers later, but a decision could potentially not be announced until this Wednesday.
Most foreign nationals from high-risk countries are currently already denied UK entry, so the new rules will mainly be affecting any returning UK citizens and residents.
Quarantine rules across the UK are set by each of the devolved nations but tend to be similar restrictions with only minor differences.
The requirement to isolate within a hotel for 10 days will be applying to those arrivals from the majority of southern Africa and South America, as well as those from Portugal, because a lot of flights from Brazil come via Lisbon, according to Nicholas Watt, BBC Newsnight’s political editor.
This comes after people who have already been vaccinated for COVID-19 could still transmit the coronavirus on to other people and should continue following the lockdown restrictions, England’s deputy chief medical officer has stressed.
He said there had been “no definitive decision yet” on arrivals from other parts of the world and this was “still a live issue”.
Whitehall sources said those quarantining in hotels would have to pay for the costs of their own accommodation.
The prime minister will later chair a meeting of the Covid operations committee, attended by senior ministers, to discuss the options.
It comes after the UK’s death toll from Covid passed 100,000, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
At the moment, almost all arrivals to the UK need to have tested negative for Covid-19 within the 72 hours before they set off to be allowed entry. Then they still have to quarantine for up to 10 days, although this can be done at home.
In England, this self-isolation period can be cut short with a second negative test after five days.
Quarantine rules are put in place separately within Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but have only had minor differences in the past, and there has been more or less a “four nations” approach to discussions around hotel quarantine Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, has said.
But John Swinney, the deputy first minister, said that his government would “go at least as far” as any potential Westminster policy, adding: “If these UK restrictions are at a minimal level, we will look at other controls we can announce – including additional supervised quarantine measures – that can further protect us from importation of the virus.”
This comes after UK deaths due to COVID-19 are now expected to have surpassed 100,000, following the release of figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
Hotel quarantine restrictions have already been put in place in countries including New Zealand and Australia.
Jessica Gold, from London, has been trying to get home from South Africa with her mother, 77, and son, 13, since the 1st of January, but their flights have been cancelled three times.
She says the idea of having to quarantine in a hotel when she eventually manages to get home is “absolutely absurd”.
“Now we are booked to return on 16 Feb, and there is no way we can or will stay in a hotel to quarantine when I have my own place and we can quarantine there, as we have done in the past,” says Jessica, who flew out to her safari lodge in Greater Kruger National Park, on business, at the end of November.
Jessica, 42, wants the government to get tougher on enforcing travellers’ home quarantines, rather than bringing in the hotel rule which she says is “ridiculous and an extra unnecessary expense during these very tough times”.
Jessica adds that she’s looking into other ways of getting home earlier, before any potential new rules kick in.
