UK to start COVID-19 hotel quarantine on Feb 15 amid criticism of delay

LONDON: Everyone arriving in the United Kingdom from countries identified as COVID-19 hotspots will have to spend 10 days in hotel quarantine starting from Feb 15 in a bid to prevent new coronavirus variants from reaching the country, the government said on Friday (Feb 5).

But authorities are facing criticism for delays in implementing the policy, which was first announced in late January.

Under the plan, British citizens and residents returning from high-risk countries will have to quarantine in approved hotels near airports and sea ports, patrolled by security guards, and will be billed for their stay.

Most international travel is already banned under current restrictions to curb the spread of the COVID-19, and arriving passengers must show a negative coronavirus test and self-isolate. Enforcement of the quarantine has been uneven, however.

The UK says it has sought advice from Australia and New Zealand, where quarantine hotels have been used to contain COVID-19.

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The main opposition Labour Party said it was “beyond comprehension” that the policy was only being introduced 50 days after a new, more transmissible strain of the virus from South Africa was first identified. Labour borders spokesman Nick Thomas-Symonds said the government was doing “too little, too late”.

Some hotel chains said they were in talks with the government about taking part, but Paul Charles, chief executive of travel consultancy the PC Agency, said others were concerned about their brand reputation being “tarnished” if they became associated with pandemic quarantines.

And Meher Nawab, chief executive of the London Hotel Group, questioned whether there was enough time to set the system up safely.

“To set all the processes up, you need virologists to come and visit the property, you need to set up hygiene protocols - that can’t all be done overnight,” he told the BBC. “The ventilation system has to be looked at very closely. I’m not sure what (the government) has set out can be done in this time.”

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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.

So far almost 10.5 million people, 20 per cent of all adults, have received the first of two doses of a vaccine.

The government aims to give a shot to 15 million people by Feb 15, including everyone over 70 and those with underlying health conditions.

The government announced on Friday that everyone in the UK over 50 should have received at least one dose by May, a vaccination schedule that 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.

The government said in-person voting could be held safely despite the pandemic, but voters would have to bring their own pencils or pens to mark their ballots.

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