Virus spike in Portugal threatens holidays
PORTUGAL is likely to be removed from the Government’s quarantine exemption list today after its coronavirus rate worsened.
There were 23 Covid- 19 cases per 100,000 people in the country in the seven days to Wednesday – up from 15.3 a week earlier.
Pressure is also mounting on England to consider imposing quarantine rules on travellers from Greece, amid reports of people returning with coronavirus.
The Scottish government, led by Nicola Sturgeon, is requiring travellers from the country to self- isolate for 14 days from Thursday, while Wales has imposed the measure on arrivals from the island of Zante.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a decision on whether to bring in restrictions on the countries would be announced today.
But mainland Portugal was added to the Welsh quarantine list last night as of 4am today.
In Greece, the seven- day coronavirus case rate is 13.8. It is 14.7 in the UK. A seven- day rate of 20 is the threshold above which the UK Government has considered triggering quarantine conditions.
One family due to fly to Portugal this weekend now faces the prospect of a second holiday cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions.
Gary Hiles, 34, from Sunderland and his family booked to go to Majorca but were forced to cancel after Spain was removed from the list of exempted destinations.
They then rebooked to Portugal because the country had recently been added.
Mr Hiles said: “We have an autistic son. He gets excited about going on a plane.
“He doesn’t understand why our holiday may be cancelled.”