Brits rush to quit Mexico before it’s put on to red list

BRITISH holidaymakers in Mexico yesterday snapped up tickets on the final flights home before the country is added to the red list.

British Airways added three extra flights from the capital Mexico City to London to help the 6,000 travellers out there avoid a mandatory ten-day stay in a quarantine hotel when they return.

The airline also put on an extra plane from the popular resort of Cancun and brought another flight forward. It has been rescheduled to touch down at Gatwick at 3.05am tomorrow, just 55 minutes before Mexico is put on the red list.

While earlier in the week tickets had risen to thousands of pounds amid the panic to return, last night fares as little as £260 were available.

hundreds have decided to leave their holidays early, but others are planning to stay, despite the extra cost of quarantine, which is currently £1,750, rising to £2,285 from August

‘Completely devastated’

12. The decision to place Mexico on the red list has attracted criticism because its rate of Covid infection is significantly lower than Spain’s, which has stayed on the amber list.

Figures show that 122 per million people in Mexico are testing positive each day – compared to 457 per million in Spain. But the UK government believes the real number of cases in Mexico is significantly higher, while separate data suggested the actual death toll is at least 60 per cent above the confirmed figure of 243,165.

The decision to place it on the red list also reflects worries about a new variant which originated in Colombia and may be resistant to vaccines.

Experts also point out that Spain conducts nearly 15 times more tests in proportion to the size of its population than Mexico, which has only fully vaccinated a fifth of all adults.

Among those trying to get back to the UK is nurse rebecca Dean and her family. She told of her ‘complete devastation’ at having to scrap the £8,000 holiday in Cancun she had saved up for. She said on ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘Yes we could have gone closer to home but this was our dream holiday and there was nothing to suggest this would happen’.

Meanwhile, Aaron Stewart had planned to stay in Mexico City with his wife and their newborn baby until August 20 to register his son’s birth.

But if he does that, he will have to quarantine in a hotel for ten days on his return, which would cost £2,285.

The self-employed engineer said: ‘It’s time that I can’t take off work because it’s going to cost me much more than [the hotel cost].’