NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE
Hotel quarantine farce as only 16 hotels with just 4,600 rooms sign up – despite 1,400 passengers coming in per day
JUST 16 hotels with 4,600 rooms have signed up for a hotel quarantine deal with the Government so far - despite 1,400 people flying into the UK every day from hotspot countries.
Matt Hancock told the House of Commons today Brits will have to pay a whopping £1750 for the 10 day stay - which includes food, rooms and two extra tests.
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The quarantine hotels policy is due to come in on Monday - after weeks of delays as ministers ironed out the details.
But nowhere near enough hotels are yet ready for the launch.
It’s estimated that nearly thousands of people a day are flying into the country from hotspot countries at the moment - meaning they will currently run out of space after just FOUR days.
From next Monday anyone coming in from more than 30 countries will all be ordered to stay in quarantine hotels for 10 days.
But today Mr Hancock confirmed a significantly tougher policy for everyone flying into the UK to stop new variants coming in and putting at risk Britain's vaccination programme.
He told the Commons: "Just like flu and all other viruses mutates over time. And so responding to new variants as soon as they arise is mission critical to protect ourselves for the long term.
"I make no apologies for the strength of these measures, because we're dealing with one of the strongest threats to our public health that we've faced as a nation."
People will be ordered to have a negative test before they fly, and then do two tests while they are in the hotel - on days two and eight.
Airlines could face fines if people don't sign up to follow the rules.
If those tests come back positive they will have to isolate there for a further ten days.
Mr Hancock added: "The combination of enhanced testing and sequencing has been a powerful weapon through this pandemic. And we'll be bringing it to bear so we can find positive cases, break the chains of transmission and prevent new cases and new bearings from putting us at risk."
Anyone who leaves the quarantine faces a whopping £10,000 fine.
And people who lie about where they have been on holiday to try and avoid the quarantine could even face a 10-year jail sentence too.
The new rules will apply to England only, but similar rules will come in in Scotland too.
There's no news on how long the quarantine hotels will last for - but Matt Hancock played down the idea of it ending before the summer, dashing hopes for holidays.
HOLS HORROR
He even suggested people may need to wait until having a booster jab in autumn to take into account the new booster jab for variants.
He told the Commons we want to exit from it "as soon as is practicable and as soon as it is safe" and stressed that they would need to see details on how effective the vaccine was on the variants first.
The Health Sec said: "Professor JVT set out some of the details we need to see in the effectiveness of the current vaccines on the variants of concern in order to have that assurance.
"And if that isn't forthcoming then we'll need to vaccinate with a further booster jab in the Autumn - on which we're working with the vaccine industry.
"These are the uncertainties within which we're operating hence for now my judgement is the package we've announced today is the right one.
"For those of us who want to see that domestic opening up ensuring we have protection from variants that might arise overseas is an important part, until we can get to a position where we can be confident in vaccine efficacy against all variants not just against the current variants here in large numbers in the UK."
It comes as:
- A passenger from South America told how they walked through Heathrow in ten minutes with NO checks
- The World Health Organisation said today Covid did NOT start in a Wuhan wet market - but the lab leak theory is also unlikely
- Last night Brits were warned by Jonathan Van Tam it's still too early to book a holiday abroad for the summer
NO DODGING
The threat of jail will close the loophole that has been used by passengers to get around stricter quarantine measures.
Irish officials this week said they were toughing up their own border after hundreds of Brits flew to Dublin from Dubai to get around the rules.
Airliners had to put on extra flights to meet the demand of canny passengers.
Irish Foreign minister Simon Coveney said he is open to sharing passenger data on people travelling from Dublin into Britain with Whitehall to increase a crack down on offenders.
The Government only put the contract out to hotels for the quarantine plans on Friday - leaving little time to secure the thousands of hotels needed to house everyone.
Britain will follow the strategy seen in Australia and New Zealand - where they have used quarantine hotels throughout the pandemic and seen relatively small cases in their countries.
Mr Hancock spoke to his counterparts over there last week to find out more about how their systems could work.
Critics said more business support was vital with the new measures.
Richard Burge, Chief Executive of London Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said:
“At this point in the UK’s pandemic response we understand that the government must tighten border protection measures.
“We still need to see the science behind these measures and we want to know why their introduction has been delayed.
"The economic impact of these measures is obvious. The government must sufficiently support our aviation and travel companies, as well as the downstream hospitality, inward tourism and cultural sectors."
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All the hotel quarantine rules
- Any guests who try to escape isolation will be fined £10,000
- The total cost of the stay will be £1,750 EACH for a hotel room for ten days
- Brits will have to stay there for ten days
- They will need to take two tests - on day two and eight. This is on TOP of the negative one they need to fly
- If they refuse the tests they may be fined £2,000
- Escapees could also be forced to stay locked up for even longer than their required stay if they don't take a test
- If people lie about where they have come from on their forms, they could face 10 years in jail
TRAVEL LOOPHOLE
A loophole in the new testing rules means arrivals into Britain could enjoy a three-day window between quarantine periods.
Matt Hancock revealed people can still be released from self-isolation on day five if they receive a negative test result - but only if they are isolating at home not in a quarantine hotel.
Under the new scheme they will have to do another test on day eight - and if that comes back positive go back into quarantine.
The Health Secretary admitted the loophole exists when grilled about it by Tory MP Huw Merriman.
Mr Merriman asked: "Does that mean that somebody can successfully test day five, they would test negative, are then free to interact in the community for those three days, still have to take another test at day eight in which case if they fail that test they have to quarantine again.?
Mr Hancock replied: "On the first point of clarity he seeks he’s stated the position exactly correctly."
TRAVEL INDUSTRY WHACKED
But the moves will be a nail in the coffin to the travel industry as Brits think about booking their summer holidays abroad.
It will force the costs for going abroad up - as passengers will have to pay hundreds of pounds to stay in the hotel, and for the tests.
Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency called on the government to propose an exit strategy so that the travel industry can plan for the future.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
He said: "The Government needs to signal that it is looking to loosen border restrictions again from April, when there will be much less pressure on the NHS and infection/mortality rates will be lower.
"What is the exit route out of this? Travel cannot work on the short-term whim of Government."
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Now Brits need two more Covid tests when flying into the UK - and face £2k fines for refusing
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