LONDON, Aug 8 (NNN-AGENCIES) —The UK “will not hesitate” to add more countries to its travel quarantine list in order to protect public health, the chancellor has said.
Rishi Sunak told Sky News “there is always the risk of disruption” to holidays during the coronavirus pandemic.
Arrivals to the UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra have been told they will need to self-isolate for 14 days amid a surge in cases in France.
Belgium has one of the highest coronavirus case rates in Europe at 49.2 per 100,000 people, compared with 14.3 per 100,000 in the UK.
For comparison, Spain’s rate was 27.4 per 100,000 around the time it was removed from the UK’s travel corridor list of countries exempt from quarantine restrictions.
According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, France recorded 23.4 cases per 100,000 people in the last two weeks.
Meanwhile, new infections in France rose by more than 40% on Friday, with 2,288 further cases over the past 24 hours. Some 1,604 new cases were reported on Thursday.
On Friday, the UK reported a further 98 people had died with the virus, taking the total to 46,511, with a further 871 people testing positive for Covid-19.
The total includes all deaths in people who have ever tested positive and the actual cause of death may not be Covid-19 in all cases.
Asked whether tourist destinations such as France could be next to be added to the quarantine list, Sunak said the government was keeping the situation “under constant review” and that people should “be mindful” of the risk of disruption to travel given the global pandemic.
He told holidaymakers they should constantly look at government guidance and “make the best decisions they can, knowing we live in uncertain times”.
He said No 10 was doing “the right thing”, keeping the situation “under eview on a constant basis” and consulting with scientists and medical advisers. If action was needed, the government would “not hesitate to do that”, he said, in order “to protect people’s health”.
The new rules for Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra have already come into force in Wales and will take effect in the rest of the UK from 04:00 BST on Saturday.
Continental rail service Eurostar said there was an increase in passengers travelling on its trains from Brussels to London on Friday, beating the deadline.
Quarantines have already been re-imposed for travellers from Spain and Luxembourg.
But people arriving in England and Wales from Brunei and Malaysia will no longer need to self-isolate, after a decrease in confirmed new coronavirus cases there.
People who do not self-isolate when required to after being abroad can be fined up to £1,000 in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. Those returning to Scotland could be fined £480, with fines up to £5,000 for persistent offenders. — NNN-AGENCIES
