QUARANTINE HOTELS IN THE UK: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW
From Monday 15 February, British travellers returning from certain countries will need to pay £1,750 to quarantine in hotels. This article is being updated regularly with the latest news .
HOW DOES THE HOTEL QUARANTINE SYSTEM WORK?
From Monday 15 February, more stringent border controls are being introduced to protect the UK from new variants of Covid while the vaccines are being rolled out. This means mandatory quarantine for British travellers arriving back into the UK from a ‘red list’ of high-risk countries (find out which ones these are, under ‘Who will be affected?’, below). These returning British residents will be required to stay in government-approved hotels. Covid tests then need to be taken on days two and eight of isolation to ‘enable authorities to track new cases more effectively’, according to the Department of Health. It’s similar to the model used in Australia – the island nation closed its borders early in the pandemic and hotel quarantine proved very successful. In a statement, Home Secretary Priti Patel said that too many people were coming in and out of the country and the government wanted to reduce these and therefore the risk to the vaccination programme. ‘Going on holiday is not a valid reason, so we will introduce a new requirement so that people wishing to travel must first make a declaration as to why they need to travel.
HOW MUCH DOES HOTEL QUARANTINE COST?
The quarantine package (hotel, transport and testing) to be booked online before arrival, will cost £1,750, it was announced by the health secretary Matt Hancock on 9 February.
WHO WILL BE AFFECTED?
Just those British citizens arriving from 33 designated red list countries, including the UAE, southern Africa, Brazil, other areas of South America, and Portugal. All are high-risk countries or regions where virus variants have been recorded – currently, only British residents are permitted to enter the UK from those places. A blanket policy aimed at all travellers into the UK was rejected by MPs. In a recent statement, Boris Johnson said that ‘I want to make clear that under the stay at home regulations, it is illegal to leave home to travel abroad for leisure purposes. And we will enforce this at ports and airports by asking people why they are leaving and instructing them to return home if they do not have a valid reason to travel.’ Relatively few people are travelling right now because of UK lockdown rules forbidding holiday travel – travel corridors have been closed, and anyone entering the country for a legitimate reason has to show a negative test result.
HOW LONG WOULD YOU HAVE TO QUARANTINE IN A HOTEL FOR AFTER TRAVELLING OUTSIDE THE UK?
Ten days, as it is for those who must quarantine from home. And longer if you test positive. The ‘Test to release’ system – which allows travellers to take a Covid test after five days of quarantine – will not be accessible for those in hotel quarantine who have returned from a ‘red list’ country. For more information, see our guide to Covid tests for travel.
WHICH HOTELS WILL BE IN THE UK QUARANTINE SCHEME?
We don’t know yet which hotels will be part of the scheme, but on 9 February the UK health secretary Matt Hancock said that the government has contracted with 16 hotels, making 4,600 rooms available initially. These will almost certainly be hotels based near airports – in Australia, for example, travellers are escorted from the airport to the hotel, where they must remain in their rooms for the entire period.
WHEN WILL THIS BE IMPLEMENTED?
The plan was announced on Wednesday 27 January 2021 and will be implemented from Monday 15 February. Speaking on BBC Radio 4, Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi said: ‘I think it’s right we constantly review our border policy as we have done throughout this pandemic with travel corridors.’ We’ll update this article as soon as we know more.
HOW LONG WILL THE HOTEL QUARANTINE SCHEME LAST?
The government has not released details of how long they expect the scheme to be in place, however it’s unlikely the measures will be relaxed before the UK has vaccinated a good proportion of the population. The lifting of restrictions will also probably be dependent on the number of coronavirus cases, hospitalisations and deaths in the UK – while these remain high, we can expect the new rules to stay in place.
WHY CAN’T RETURNING BRITISH RESIDENTS QUARANTINE AT HOME?
Well, it’s estimated that around a quarter of those supposedly self-isolating at home still venture out to the shops, so this is a way of ensuring they adhere to the rules and don’t potentially spread the virus.
WHAT’S BEEN THE REACTION?
Mixed. Obviously the travel and aviation industries will be hit – although few people are actually travelling at the moment. Only a few flights are landing daily at London’s major airports. Critics, including scientists and opposition MPs, have said that this limited policy may not protect the UK from as-yet undiscovered variants from other countries. Delays on the exact details led to hotel groups complaining they hadn’t been informed of any plan.
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