England is hardening its arsenal to avoid the importation of Covid-19 variants in the country. As of Monday, February 15, a mandatory quarantine at the hotel for residents from countries classified at risk will be introduced. The government has already banned arrivals of non-residents from 33 countries on a red list that includes all of Latin America and South Africa, and where new variants have been identified.
From Monday, UK residents or Irish citizens arriving in England from these countries will be locked up in a hotel and placed under surveillance for ten days. Travelers arriving from other countries must also follow a 10-day quarantine, but can do so at home. This stay at the hotel will not be free: it will cost 1,750 pounds sterling (nearly 2,000 euros), including tests. Because like all other travelers, in addition to presenting a negative test carried out in the 72 hours preceding their departure, they will have to be screened on the second and eighth days of the quarantine.
A criticized measure
This is a “new layer of security against variants at the border,” Minister of Health Matt Hancock said in a statement. Violators face heavy penalties, ranging from a 1,000 pound fine (1,125 euros) for a negative test missing on arrival to 10,000 pounds for those who attempt to escape quarantine at the hotel. Those who hide their passage in a country at risk risk 10 years in prison.
Hotel stay and tests must be booked in advance on a dedicated site. The government has already reserved nearly 5,000 rooms, with a capacity that could be increased to 58,000. Less extensive than that put in place by other countries such as Australia, the system of quarantines at hotels in the arrival in England has been criticized, in particular by the Labor opposition, believing that it does not go far enough.
The Scottish government of the independent Nicola Sturgeon has decided to apply the same measures as England, but extending it to all arrivals. 1,300 rooms are available in Scotland. Asked about this on Sunday, Foreign Minister Dominic Raab estimated that it would not be “proportionate” to impose a quarantine at the hotel on all arrivals on English soil.
More than 117,000 dead
Before the quarantines took effect at the hotel, London’s Heathrow Airport expressed concern on Saturday. “We have been working hard with the government to try to ensure the successful implementation of the policy as of Monday, but significant gaps remain and we have not yet received the necessary assurances,” the airport said in a statement.
The measure also sows fear among hotel staff, that, in particular because of the lack of sufficient ventilation, these establishments will turn into clusters. According to Charlie Islam-Harry, manager of the St Giles hotel in Heathrow, staff will regularly ensure the well-being of these new kind of guests. “Obviously it won’t be easy for them to be in a hotel room for 10 days, without being able to go anywhere,” she told Agence France-Presse. “But obviously during their quarantine, we will try to keep our distance as much as possible because obviously we will not know what their state of health is.”
Faced with the epidemic which has claimed more than 117,000 lives in the United Kingdom, the government of Boris Johnson intends to protect the benefit of the massive campaign which has enabled more than 15 million people to be vaccinated and the sacrifices made by the British, who have been living their third confinement since early January. After having met the ambitious objective of offering a vaccine to the first four categories of the most vulnerable people before mid-February, the vaccination program is expanding from this Monday, February 15 to 65-69 year olds.
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