UK adds France to Covid-19 14-day quarantine list
Hundreds of thousands of holidaymakers’ plans have been plunged into chaos after the government confirmed that France would be removed from the UK’s travel corridor list following a surge in Covid-19 cases.
The move, which will mean arrivals into UK from France will have to quarantine for 14 days on their return or face a fine, will come into effect at 4am on Saturday leaving a window of little more than 30 hours for travellers to get home if they want to escape the measures.
It comes after France – the second most popular holiday destination for Britons – recorded a post-lockdown record daily increase in new coronavirus cases of 2,669 in the previous 24 hours.
Spain, the UK’s favourite tourist destination, was removed from the safe corridor list on 26 July.
As revealed earlier by the Guardian, it was confirmed on Thursday night that the Netherlands, Malta, British overseas territory the Turks and Caicos Islands, and the island of Aruba, a Dutch constituent country in the Caribbean, are also being removed from the safe list. Monaco will join them in being taken off.
The decision is a blow in particular for the French tourist industry, as well as holidaymakers from UK who are already across the channel or have trips booked in coming weeks.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, was among ministers who had agreed on Wednesday to remove the four other locations, but they were still mulling over plans for France. It is understood that Johnson intervened to pause plans on Wednesday evening so more time could be given to analyse Covid cases in France to see whether it should be removed.
Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP
(@grantshapps)Data shows we need to remove France, the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks & Caicos & Aruba from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors to keep infection rates DOWN. If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.
August 13, 2020
After further consideration on Thursday evening, which took into account the latest daily coronavirus infections in France and successive post-lockdown record rises, the government decided it was time to act.
Earlier on Thursday during a visit to Northern Ireland, Johnson said: “We have got to be absolutely ruthless about this, even with our closest and dearest friends and partners. I think everybody understands that.”
He added: “We will be looking at the data a bit later on this afternoon, looking exactly where France and other countries are getting to. We can’t be remotely complacent about our own situation.
“Everybody understands that in a pandemic you don’t allow our population to be reinfected or the disease to come back in. That is why the quarantine measures are very important and we have to apply them in a very strict way.”
On Thursday, France recorded 2,669 new Covid-19 cases, a post-lockdown record high, up from 2,524 on Wednesday. This figure topped the 2,288 cases on Friday and was followed by 2,184 infections on Saturday, 1,885 on Sunday and 785 on Monday – when the country’s health ministry reported the first significant rise in the number of people in hospital due to Covid-19.
Meanwhile, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, France’s 14-day cumulative number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people reached 32.1 as of Thursday, compared with the UK’s 18.5.
The Netherlands had a rate of 40.2 per 100,000 over 14 days, and Malta had a rate of 74.8 per 100,000. Belgium, Luxembourg and Spain are among countries already removed from England’s safe list, with the snap exit of the last of these, with just a few hours’ notice, in July causing chaos for holidaymakers.
Individual decisions on whether or not to remove countries are taken by devolved administrations. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all moved last Thursday to announce the imposition of quarantine measures on arrivals from Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas.
Read the original article at The Guardian