By Plans to ditch mandatory 14 day quarantine for people arriving in the UK.
Since 17 March 2020, the government has advised Brits against all unessential travel. If overseas trips are taken, anyone returning to the UK is legally required to quarantine for 14 days on arrival, or face hefty fines of up to £1,000 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, or up to £5,000 in Scotland for repeat offenders.
To uphold this rule, the government has introduced ‘random-checks’ for those quarantining after travel. When arriving, travellers must provide an address and telephone number of where they will be quarantining, and officers will perform random checks to ensure the quarantine rules are being observed.
This move was widely criticised by many MPs, as well as the travel industry as a whole. As one of the industries that has been hit hardest by the coronavirus pandemic, many believed that this move made travel completely impossible, and made financial recovery from the pandemic unlikely.
Now, it would appear these measures are to be relaxed from 6 July.
A government spokesperson has advised that those travelling to or from a select number of ‘safe countries’ in Europe (those that have managed to contain the pandemic) will be free from quarantine upon their arrival into the UK. Whilst no official announcement has been made as yet, it is believed that those countries include Spain, France, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Finland, Belgium, Turkey, Germany and Norway.
The government will be releasing the list of official ‘travel corridor’ countries next week and are expected to use a ‘traffic light system’ where countries will be marked as green, amber or red, according to risk.
As with all rules that are being relaxed after coronavirus, this move to relax travel quarantines will be conditional on risks staying low both in the UK, and countries with whom the ‘no-quarantine-travel’ is permitted. The government has also said that it ‘will not hesitate to put on the brakes’ if the situation changes with any country, including our own.
As expected, the travel industry is embracing the change and hoping that last minute summer travel will help bring back the industry from the brink of collapse. In a statement received by travel industry group ABTA, the group describe the relaxation of quarantine rules as “encouraging” and note that the “confirmation of the list of countries is eagerly anticipated by the travel industry.”
As expected, the announcement also has enraged critics, with some pointing out that whilst quranatine-free-travel to Portugal is not permitted (due to an outbreak in Lisbon), there are no measures in place to stop someone from flying to Spain, driving over the border, and then returning by the same route.
When travel corridors are opened, all people arriving in the UK will still be required to provide an address and telephone number, no matter what country they arrive from. This is for health and security measures in case outbreaks are detected at a later date. All travellers will also be required to wear face coverings on planes and ferries to minimise the risk of infection.
Photo by Isaac Struna on Unsplash
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