I accept confusion on Covid – Shapps
THE Transport Secretary has admitted there is “confusion” over differing quarantine rules across the UK – as the Prime Minister has insisted that “overwhelmingly” the union is “proceeding as one”.
Grant Shapps defended the decision not to impose restrictions on people entering England from Greece and Portugal despite Scotland and Wales ordering periods of isolation to slow the spread of coronavirus.
But there were questions over whether the Westminster Government was heeding the advice of the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), which advises on the threat faced by travel from foreign nations.
The Scottish Government defended its decision to impose a 14-day quarantine for arrivals from the tourist destinations after Mr Shapps suggested it had “jumped the gun” on Greece.
A spokesman said the Transport Secretary had announced the decision before hearing the JBC advice indicating a “significant rise” in prevalence of Covid-19 in Portugal.
Boris Johnson said that different devolved administrations have “different rates of infectivity” and approaches to the crisis. “But overwhelmingly the UK is proceeding as one,” he said yesterday.
“I think you will find if you dig below the surface of some of the surface differentiations you will find overwhelmingly the UK takes the same approach.”
Scotland and Wales are imposing 14 days of isolation on arrivals from Portugal. Scotland is also including Greece on its quarantine list, while Wales added seven Greek islands.
But Mr Shapps concluded that travellers could continue to arrive in England from Portugal and Greece without having to quarantine.
“I do realise it creates confusion for people not to have a single rule, but we do have this devolved approach throughout the United Kingdom and I can only be responsible for the English part of that,” he told Sky News.
The Cabinet minister said the Government’s review concluded no changes were necessary partly because “test positivity for example in Portugal actually came down” while the number of cases overall in Greece had fallen. But the Scottish Government spokesman said: “In the case of Portugal, it was unfortunate that the UK Government announced their decision yesterday before ministers from England, Scotland and Northern Ireland met and before considering the latest Joint Biosecurity Centre data.
“This indicated a significant rise in both the prevalence of the virus in Portugal and in test positivity.”
Downing Street did not deny that the advice from the JBC was that travel from Portugal and the six Greek islands restricted by Wales presents a risk of spreading coronavirus.
Welsh health minister Vaughan Gething said Wales was acting “in line with” the risk assessments from the quarantine on arrivals from those areas.