New quarantine rules expected for travellers to UK

Boris Johnson is expected to sign off sweeping new quarantine rules for travellers in airport hotels on Tuesday as cabinet ministers rebuffed pressure from Tory MPs to set out a timetable for the easing of lockdown.

In what Downing Street said was a more cautious approach since England’s third lockdown, a No 10 source said: “We don’t ever want to unlock anything if we have to lock it again”. It may mean coronavirus travel curbs and other restrictions remaining in place for months.

The hotel quarantine measure, which government sources said may take “weeks rather than days” to implement, would be an “effective closure of our borders,” the airline industry said.

Ten-day stays are expected to cost upwards of £1,000 for each traveller. Some countries, which imposed similar regimes from March last year, charge many thousands for accommodation, board and security, with occupants confined to their rooms, including for exercise.

Ministers had previously discussed limiting hotel quarantine to “hotspot” countries, including South Africa and parts of South America, but Whitehall sources said that was now likely to be expanded to a blanket quarantine policy for all arrivals, or a wider targeted approach, which still may cover entire continents, such as South America.

A final decision will be made by cabinet ministers at a Covid-O meeting on Tuesday, with the prime minister presented with several options. Details yet to be confirmed include the cost and whether a “test to release” policy will operate, like the measure which currently allows travellers to leave quarantine if they test negative after five days.

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A blanket policy covering all travellers is favoured by the home secretary Priti Patel and the health secretary Matt Hancock, and backed by the chancellor Rishi Sunak – though he has said he needs to see a plan of how to taper off the policy. Grant Shapps, the transport secretary who has been cautious about the workability of the policy, has also requested a roadmap for easing the rules.

Hancock said on Monday it was “incredibly important that we are cautious at the border … It is important that we protect from new variants should they have vaccine evasion. And it is also reasonable to take a precautionary principle to protect this country whilst we work on the science and the analysis of the different variants that are discovered around the world”.

Johnson also hinted that he favoured more comprehensive restrictions, saying the policy should provide “the maximum possible protection against reinfection from abroad”.

On Monday the UK recorded 22,195 further cases – the lowest daily figure for more than a month. The numbers have not been this low since 20,263 new cases were recorded on 14 December. Week on week, new cases have fallen by 25%. There were 592 reported deaths.