Guests look out of a window at the Radisson Blu hotel near Heathrow Airport during their 10-day quarantine
Credit: Steve Parsons/PA
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The United States and Spain could be added to the "red list" of countries requiring passengers to quarantine in Government-approved hotels.
On Wednesday, the Department for Transport (DfT) and health officials considered the latest scientific data on the risk of new Covid variants from the two countries. Ministers at the Cabinet Covid operations committee will decide whether they should be added to the red list later this week.
The US and Spain have both seen local transmission of new variants and are geographically linked to South America and Portugal, which are subject to UK foreign travel bans. They are two of the biggest travel markets with the UK.
Even with the newly-tightened border restrictions, there are an estimated 1,000 arrivals a day from the US and 500 from Spain, who are currently allowed to quarantine at home without having to pay the £1,750 charge to self-isolate in hotels.
"Our priority has always been protecting the health of the UK public, and we must now focus on ensuring the success of our vaccination programme," said a DfT spokesman. "We will therefore continue taking action to lower the chances of new variants entering the UK."
The Telegraph revealed earlier this week that airports had been told by the Government that the red list would "get longer before it got shorter".
"The US and Spain are on the list so it means some of the bigger markets will be considered by officials as part of the discussions before being put to ministers. It will be based on evidence from the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC)," said a Government source.
The Government had originally estimated 1,425 arrivals a day from the current 33 "red list" countries and has so far struck deals with 16 hotels to provide 4,963 rooms for quarantining arrivals. However, it revealed on Sunday that it had a further 58,000 rooms on standby in the event of a major expansion.
Ministers have already indicated that they are willing to add countries to the "red list" at short notice if required to protect against the import of new variants.
The 33 ‘red list’ countries
On Wednesday, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) told The Telegraph that passengers will be charged for their quarantine hotel booking for any changes within 48 hours of arrival. They will only get a full refund of the £1,750 for cancellations or amendments with more than 48 hours notice.
A DHSC spokesman said: "If more countries are added to the ‘red list’ and passenger numbers from ‘red list’ countries start to increase, then we are prepared to put in place managed quarantine facilities at the required airports. We are monitoring the situation closely, and have extensive contingency plans, dependent on the changing situation."
Taxpayers face picking up a big bill for hundreds of unused hotel rooms block-booked by the Government for quarantining arrivals but empty because, so far, just a few hundred passengers a day have arrived from "red list" countries.
Under the terms of the Government deal to book up entire hotels in England and Scotland, each hotel is paid a set rate for each room up front, up to 80 per cent of its capacity. The cost to the taxpayer is then offset by a traveller paying the mandatory £1,750 to stay in a room. However, that means taxpayers are exposed for rooms paid for but never needed.
Leaked tender documents show it was expected that the Government would pay between £50 and £80 per room, with entire hotels to be booked for quarantine. It emerged on Wednesday night that 822 hotel rooms in Scotland were available for quarantine but just 14 were occupied as of Tuesday.
Six in 10 travel firms say they will lay off more than a fifth of their staff without a clear roadmap from Boris Johnson for reopening travel this summer.
That would equate to 500,000 jobs, according to a poll of 255 travel businesses by new industry campaign group Save our Summer.
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