Holidays in chaos as 14 countries risk being added to UK’s quarantine list
MINISTERS will today exclude more countries from quarantine-free travel to the UK – but France may be granted a “reprieve”.
As many as 14 countries, including France, the Netherlands and Malta, are on the brink of joining Spain on the quarantine list, throwing millions of summer holidays into chaos.
Senior ministers met yesterday to discuss changes to the Foreign Office “no-go” list and the Department for Transport’s quarantine-exempt list.
No 10 says it is watching case numbers, testing figures and infection rates in “a number of countries and territories”.
A Whitehall source said “France looks like it will get a reprieve this week”, although it recorded 2,524 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday – up nearly 50 per cent on last Wednesday’s figure.
Paul Charles, of the Quash Quarantine campaign group, said: “There’s likely to be 30 hours’ notice of the quarantine being introduced for any countries affected.
“The data today will be important, but I would still expect France, the Netherlands and Malta to be added.
“Quarantine simply isn’t the answer though. There has to be better, world-class testing at airports for arrivals – body temperature checks and swab and saliva tests – and also deeper use of Test & Trace in the days after arriving back from a high-risk country.
“Other countries are doing this effectively. In Dubai, you have to have a negative test before you leave the country and when you enter it. These tests are paid for by the traveller.”
Denmark, Iceland, the Czech Republic, San Marino, the Faroe Islands, Turks and Caicos and Aruba were also said to have been under discussion by ministers.
Last week Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas were bumped from the travel corridor list.
But holidaymakers travelling with British Airways could be offered pre-flight Covid-19 tests, the airline revealed yesterday.
A BA spokesperson said: “We are currently discussing the possibility of helping our customers access pre-flight testing through third parties if their destination requires this, but no plans have been finalised. We will share more in due course.
“We are doing everything we can to make travel as safe and stress-free as possible for our customers in these unprecedented times.”
Rival Emirates claimed to be the world’s first airline to offer preflight Covid tests back in April.
Both Emirates and Etihad have since made pre-flight Covid tests mandatory for every passenger, a move BA is not planning to follow.
Meanwhile, European leaders expressed growing alarm as coronavirus cases surged again in France, Spain and parts of Germany.
With fears of a full-blown second wave sweeping across the EU, France’s Prime Minister Jean Castex warned that the country had been going “the wrong way” for two weeks.
A ban on meetings of more than 5,000 people has now been extended to October 30. It is
already compulsory in France to wear face coverings nationwide on public transport and in indoor spaces including shops and government offices.
Local authorities have the ability to impose mask-wearing and some have introduced it in outdoor spaces, including Paris tourist hot spots and along the banks of the River Seine.
Health chiefs in Spain said the country has once again reached a “critical situation” with the worst infection rate in Europe.
The country has reported an average daily rise of 4,923 cases during the past seven days.
Meanwhile, in Germany the number of confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 1,226 to 218,519, data released yesterday showed.
Health minister Jens Spahn warned: “We must be very alert about the rise.”
Elsewhere in Europe, Greece has imposed a night-time curfew for restaurants and bars in popular tourist areas – venues will now have to close between midnight and seven in the morning.