LONDON: Britain will require passengers arriving from countries where worrying coronavirus variants are spreading to pay for 10 days of quarantine in hotels, while rule-breakers will face heavy fines or jail terms, under tighter restrictions from next week.
The new travel rules add to restrictions that already ban travel abroad for holidays. The government said the stronger measures were needed to prevent new variants of the virus from thwarting Britain’s rapid vaccination programme.
Airlines and travel companies called for more government aid, saying the new rules would deepen a crisis that has seen them lose nearly all their revenue.
Health secretary Matt Hancock said people could be sent to prison and fined up to £10,000 ($14,000) if they break the rules which come into force on February 15.
“Anyone who lies on the passenger locator form and tries to conceal that they’ve been in a country on the ‘red list’ in the 10 days before arrival here, will face a prison sentence of up to 10 years’’, Hancock told parliament.
British and Irish nationals arriving in England who have been in high risk countries in the last 10 days would be required to pay £1,750 ($2,400) to cover the cost of a minimum 10-day quarantine in a designated hotel, Hancock said.
All arrivals into the UK will also have to take further Covid-19 tests on day 2 and day 8 of their quarantines, he said, on top of a pre-departure test already required.
Britain has rolled out the fastest vaccination programme of any large country. But there has been alarm in recent days after reports that the vaccines it is using may be less effective against some new variants of the virus, such as one that has spread rapidly in South Africa.
The government said the stricter rules could stay in place until it is sure vaccines work against new variants, or booster shots become available.
— Reuters
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