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» France facing axe from safe list » Fears of a rush to beat quarantine
FRANCE last night faced being axed from our safe travel list after an alarming spike in Covid-19 cases, causing further holiday headaches for families.
An estimated 110,000 UK citizens are enjoying breaks there and tens of thousands more are hoping to travel over the summer, having believed it was a relatively safe option amid the pandemic.
But coronavirus cases have surged to 30.4 per 100,000 people in the past 14 days, compared with a UK rate of 18.2.
This could make getaway plans a non-starter – and spark a chaotic scramble for ferry and Eurostar services as those already there try to get back before restrictions bite.
Health officials were last night poring over the latest data as they weighed up whether or not to make people returning from France self-isolate for a fortnight.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, speaking during a visit to Northern Ireland yesterday, said: “We have got to be absolutely ruthless about this, even with our closest and dearest friends and partners. I think everybody understands that.
“We will be looking at the data a bit later on – looking at exactly where France and other countries are getting to.
“We can’t be remotely complacent about our own situation.
“Everybody understands that in a pandemic you don’t allow our population to be reinfected or the disease to come back in. That is why the quarantine measures are very important and we have to apply them in a very strict way.”
It came amid fears Malta and the Netherlands could also be cut from the list of countries from which arrivals do not need to quarantine.
Malta has a rate of 74.8 per 100,000 over 14 days, while the Netherlands is at 40.2.
France is the second most popular holiday destination after Spain for Brits, attracting more than 10 million last year.
But its health ministry yesterday reported 2,669 new infections over
We have to be ruthless about this, even with our closest friends
PM BORIS JOHNSON ON CONSIDERING RESTRICTIONS
the past 24 hours. This set a new post-lockdown daily high for the second day in a row and took the country’s total cases to 209,365.
And the seven-day moving average of new infections rose to 1,962 – a total that has doubled in the past two weeks to levels not seen since the height of the pandemic in late April.
Travel industry leaders said they would be “staggered” if France is not removed from the safe countries list, in a major setback to recovery hopes.
Last week, the Department for Transport gave people returning from
Belgium just 30 hours’ notice that self-isolation restrictions would be imposed.
A similar warning for holidaymakers in France could spark a rush for ferry ports such as Calais and Dunkirk – and a scramble for seats on Eurostar trains or Eurotunnel shuttle services. John Keefe, the public affairs director at Channel Tunnel operator Getlink, warned that there is “very limited” capacity on services throughout this month.
The Government published its list of 59 “travel corridor” countries, from which returning travellers would not have to quarantine, on July 3.
But it was keen to stress at the time: “Countries and territories can be taken off or added to this exempt list at any time.”
The original list featured popular European hotspots including, Spain, France and Greece.
But Spain was removed from it on July 26, after its infection rate hit 27.4 per 100,000 people. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, whose department drew up the rules, was among those forced into quarantine.
The restrictions came in while he was on a family holiday in Spain, which he cut short to return to the UK.