VISITORS TO UK FACE 14-DAY QUARANTINE

LONDON: Anyone arriving in the UK, including British citizens, from early June will need to quarantine themselves for 14 days or pay a £1,000 fine if they fail to do so, as part of plans to prevent another wave of Covid-19.

The British government’s move has been criticised by the airline and tourism industries.

Details of the quarantine plan were to be announced later, but cabinet minister Brandon Lewis said that travellers will be asked to fill in a form with contact information, and health officials will perform spot checks to ensure compliance.

Visitors from Ireland and the

Channel Islands will be exempted, besides road hauliers and medical officials.

Lewis told television channels, “We’re a country that welcomes people from all over the world. But it is appropriate that we say ‘if you’re coming to the United Kingdom, we need to protect your own health and the health of the people of the United Kingdom’.”

Airlines UK, the association of British airline companies, expressed “collective frustration” in a letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, arguing that the “people will simply choose not to travel to and from the UK”.