Call for NZ-style quarantine

The chancellor of the exchequer, Rishi Sunak, has thrown his weight behind plans to force everyone entering Britain to quarantine in a hotel to prevent new coronavirus strains jeopardising the mass vaccination programme.

Amid growing support for the proposal among members of the cabinet, Sunak is understood to have concluded that the economic cost of the move is outweighed by the risks of the present travel restrictions.

A decision on tightening border rules is due to be made by Boris Johnson tomorrow at a meeting of the government’s Covid operations committee. Two senior government sources said that the prime minister was becoming ‘‘more swayed’’ by the need to take decisive action.

In other developments:

■ A further 30,004 cases were recorded, with the seven-day average down 22.3 per cent weekon-week.

A further 610 deaths were reported, with the weekly average up 10.8 per cent.

■ Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said he could not guarantee that schools would reopen before Easter. He conceded that the lifting of lockdown rules in England remained a ‘‘long, long, long way’’ off.

■ A record 491,970 people in the UK received their first coronavirus vaccine dose on Saturday, bringing the total to 6.3 million.

Three quarters of over-80s have now received a jab. Maintaining the same pace would enable the government to beat its target for covering the most vulnerable sections of society by February 15, although experts warned that this would rely on adequate supplies of the vaccine.

■ A scientific adviser to the government said that delaying second coronavirus doses to give more people their first would ‘‘save many lives’’.

■ Hancock said that 77 cases of the ‘‘South Africa variant’’ of the virus had been detected in the UK.

■ Israel announced that most flights would be banned for a week to slow the spread of new variants.

Under proposals being drawn up by the Home Office, all arrivals into UK airports and ports would be escorted to designated Covid-19 hotels where they would be expected to remain for ten days. They would be expected to have another negative test before being allowed to leave.

Talks are being held with hotel chains about taking over premises, with officials confident that they can find enough capacity to accommodate all arrivals, which number about 10,000 a day at present. The plans are similar to those introduced by Australia and New Zealand at an early stage of the pandemic.

– The Times