UK: Hotel quarantine for international travellers will be mandatory from February 15
New Delhi: The United Kingdom government on Friday announced 10 days hotel quarantine mandatory for international travellers from February 15. Anyone travelling to the UK from a high-risk Covid-19 country will have to be quarantined in government-approved hotels.
A new plan issued by the UK government includes British citizens and residents also for the hotel quarantine. All the travellers have to quarantine in government approved hotels near airports and seaports.
The UK government has already banned most international travel under current restrictions to curb the spread of the COVID-19 and arriving passengers must show a negative coronavirus test and self-isolate.
The UK says it has sought advice from Australia and New Zealand, where quarantine hotels have been used to contain COVID-19 virus.
Some hotel chains in the UK said that they were in talks with the government about taking part.
Paul Charles the chief executive of travel consultancy said that “Others were concerned about their brand reputation being ‘tarnished’ if they became associated with pandemic quarantines.”
Britain has experienced Europe’s worst COVID-19 outbreak, with more than 110,000 confirmed deaths. It also has one of the world’s fastest-moving vaccination campaigns.
The London government aims to give a shot to 15 million people by February 15 including over 70 plus aged people. Around 10.5 million people in the UK have already received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine and 20 percent are adults among them.
The government announced on Friday that everyone in the UK over 50 should have received at least one dose by the month of May and vaccination schedule meant local elections across England could be held as planned on May 6.
“Democracy should not be cancelled because of COVID,” said Constitution Minister Chloe Smith.
According to the government’s order, voting could be held safely despite the pandemic, but voters would have to bring their own pencils or pens to mark their ballots.
_Vinayak
