BILL FOR HAVING COVID

Extra costs for quarantine ‘guests’ who test positive

TRAVELLERS in quarantine hotels face an additional £1,200 bill if they test positive for coronavirus, the government says.

This is on top of the £1,750 fee for entering the programme and will apply to guests required to extend their stay beyond the initial 11 nights.

Information about the £152 daily cost of longer stays was published on the government’s website on Monday, after some guests had already checked in.

Travellers arriving in England must quarantine in a hotel if they have been in a country at high risk of coronavirus variants in the previous 10 days.

Scotland is extending the requirement to cover arrivals from any country, unless they travelled from the Common Travel Area (CTA), which includes the UK and Ireland.

Guests are allowed to leave after 11 nights if they receive negative results from tests taken on day two and day eight of their isolation.

A positive result from the first test will extend a stay by two nights, at a cost of £304.

If the second test returns a positive reading, the guest must remain in their room for an additional eight nights and pay £1,216.

Boris Johnson was asked at Monday’s Downing Street press conference what will happen if a traveller cannot afford the extra fee.

The prime minister replied: “It is currently illegal to travel abroad for holidays anyway.

Concern

“We would expect people who are coming in from one of these red list countries to be able to cover their costs.”

There are 33 countries on the government’s “red list” – which includes Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, South America and southern Africa.

UK and Irish nationals and UK residents returning to England who have been in a country on the list in the previous 10 days must enter a quarantine hotel, even if they have travelled via the CTA.

Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already expressed concern about gaps in the current system for international arrivals.

She told a coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh on Monday: “It would be better if we had that four nations approach, or at least a three nations approach, where the border of the island that Scotland, England and Wales share had the same provisions in place.”