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Holiday plans in chaos as Portugal & Greece are left off England’s quarantine list – but added for Wales & Scotland
HOLIDAY plans have been thrown into chaos after the Government delayed adding Portugal and Greece to the 14-day quarantine list.
British tourists who paid up to £900 for flights to scramble home and avoid a two-week isolation were fuming after Grant Shapps said the countries remained on the safe list.
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Cases in Portugal hit 23 per 100,000 people on Wednesday — exceeding the benchmark of 20 that has triggered other countries to be added to the quarantine list.
There was added confusion as Wales put Portugal and Greek islands Mykonos, Zante, Lesvos, Paros, Antiparos and Crete on its quarantine list from 4am today.
And the rules are different in Scotland, where arrivals must quarantine for a fortnight after Nicola Sturgeon put Portugal on the list from 4am tomorrow. Greece was also added yesterday.
Announcing the decision last night, Mr Shapps tweeted: “There are no English additions or removals today.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Covid-19 airport testing “doesn’t work”, saying only seven per cent of positive cases would be caught.
Some Brits sunning themselves in Portugal took to Twitter to rejoice at the news.
Kunta Smith tweeted a photo of his hotel pool from his sun lounger saying: "Cheers Grant."
Melani Berman tweeted: "Thanks for leaving Portugal alone, long may it last... I need my holiday in the LOW risk Algarve at the end of the month, booked last year. Infection rates in the Algarve acknowledged to be very low."
However, other Brits were furious after they booked flights home for today amid the speculation that Portugal was to be removed from the travel corridor.
A holidaymaker who spent nearly £1,000 changing her family's flights home from the Algarve to avoid having to quarantine has accused the Government of "moving the goalposts left, right and centre" after Portugal remained on the exempt list.
Kelly Jones, from Birmingham, said she paid Jet2 £900 to move her flights home from Faro from Saturday to Friday in anticipation of quarantine measures being reintroduced, to ensure her three children would not miss out on two weeks of school.
Mrs Jones, 45, said the situation was "absolutely disgusting" and said: "It's cost us a lot more money and it's money we didn't need to spend now.
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"We've lost an extra night in our villa - we won't get that back - we've got a hire car, so we're taking that back a day early. It's the knock-on effects as well."
Dad-of-two Jonathan Lake from Cardiff said he was "seething" that he and his family would have to quarantine upon their return from Crete.
He was even thinking about booking a hotel in England for two weeks to avoid it.
Mr Lake is staying with his wife and two children near Chania and was left angry by the decision of Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething and the devolved government to diverge from the UK's quarantine lists.
He said: "It's the lack of consistent messaging and management across the whole UK Government I'm really angry about now.
"And the fact they've announced it at five o'clock UK time, so 7pm they've said 'you've got until 4am tomorrow to get home'.
"I mean, what, am I supposed to charter a private jet to try and get me and my family home?"
Mr Lake, who works in the pharmaceutical industry and says he is working on Covid trials, believes the Government is being heavy-handed in its approach to the virus.
"I'm more likely to die and kill my whole family in a car crash on the way home from Gatwick Airport than I am of dying from Covid, let alone infect a load of other people," he said.
"It is beyond sense that they are taking this approach and I am so angry at the Welsh government and the whole government at how they're handling this pandemic because the whole country is being fed a load of rubbish in how this is being done, and I'm fed up with it."
One Twitter user said: “A mate just landed at Gatwick and paid £550.
"He was due back on Saturday. His kids are all in tears as they cut short the holiday.”
But former PM Tony Blair warned that the uncertainty over quarantine rules was "killing" international travel.
Calling for the blanket 14-day quarantine rules to be ditched, he told BBC Two's Newsnight: “I don’t think it’s necessary to do 14 day quarantine when you come back into the country. That is if you want literally zero risk.”
Last night budget airline Jet2 cancelled all flights to mainland Spain, plus Dubrovnik and Split, in Croatia, for the rest of the summer.
Pressure is now mounting on the government to introduce coronavirus tests at airports - allowing comprehensive border tests to override the two-week isolation periods.
Paul Charles, the founder of the PC Agency of travel consultants, told The Times: "Only testing and more testing is the solution to walking the tricky tight-rope between health and economic priorities.
"With over 30 other countries worldwide testing at airports, it's still not clear why the UK is waiting to invest in such infrastructure."
This comes as Scotland is set to add Portugal to its quarantine list this weekend, according to BBC Scotland.
This means that travellers arriving into Scotland from Portugal will potentially have to isolate for 14 days.
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Heathrow has already unveiled a coronavirus testing centre that could cut the quarantine down - but ministers have yet to back the policy.
It was reported last month that the Government were looking at a dual testing scheme which would test some on arrival and then the rest several days into their isolation.
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It would be able to tell if they'd picked up the bug and had to isolate further, or they were negative and could be released from quarantine.
But ministers have yet to make an announcement and have repeatedly talked down the idea.
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