LONDON (Reuters) – From Feb 15, Britain will place travelers arriving from COVID-19 hot spots regions for a mandatory quarantine of 10-day in government-provided accommodation, the government stated,
First introduced last month, is designed to tighten borders against mutant strains of the coronavirus which might endanger Britain’s vaccination program.
The quarantine will apply to states on a “red list” where COVID-19 variants are prevalent, including South Africa and nations in South America.
“This is adding to existing measures and we want to make sure that this works, that we give the hotel industry notice,” junior foreign minister James Cleverly told Sky News on Friday.
In an announcement late on Thursday, the government stated it had been consulting the travel and hotel industries, and would now finalise plans, including contracting hotels near ports and airports.
A Health Department spokeswoman stated Britain already had one of the toughest border regimes in the world for travellers, such as requiring proof of a negative COVID-19 test.
“We are now working at pace to secure the facilities we need to roll out managed quarantine for British nationals returning home from the most excessive risk nations,” she stated.
Opposition lawmakers have criticised Boris Johnson’s administration for not implementing the plan more quickly.
“We’re in a race against time to protect our borders against new Covid strains. But hotel quarantine will come in to force more than 50 days after the South African strain was discovered,” Labour’s home affairs spokesman Nick Thomas-Symonds stated.
Health minister Matt Hancock had mentioned the policy with his counterpart in Australia, where quarantine was introduced in March 2020, the Health Department stated. Officials would also seek advice from New Zealand.
