New 14-day quarantine guidance allows one trip to supermarket

BRITONS returning from France face one trip to the supermarket on the way home and should not walk their dogs, as the Government insisted there were few exceptions to the restrictions.

Under new guidance issued to those returning home, travellers are urged to arrange online food deliveries or ask friends to help them with shopping.

A Government source said that if there is no possible way of getting food, then people should go to the supermarket once on the way home from the airport. However, the source stressed that this should only be done as a last resort.

The Government advice on quarantine states you can leave the house if you “need access to basic necessities like food and medicines, but only in exceptional circumstances such as where you cannot arrange for these to be delivered”. Dog owners will need to ask friends or relatives to walk their pet during the 14-day isolation period or face fines of up to £1,000.

According to Government guidance, if children are unable to attend school because of clinical or public health advice, parents will not be penalised for absence. A Department for Transport source confirmed that “this includes being required to quarantine”.

They added that if a child is unable to attend school because they are in quarantine, then schools will be required to “offer each child a remote education”.

Sir Anthony Seldon, vice-chancellor of the University of Buckingham, who cut his own holiday in France short in order to avoid quarantine, told The

Daily Telegraph: “My heart goes out to all those teachers, some of whom waited for A-level results to be out before going away, only to have it cancelled.”

One quarantine exemption included in the Government guidance is in the case of funerals. Individuals are allowed to break their 14-day isolation to go to the funeral service of a family or household member.

Those in isolation are also allowed to break quarantine to visit a critically ill relation or member of their household.

Those due to give evidence in court are also eligible for an exemption. Quarantining children can move between the households of parents if they are separated and share custody.

Meanwhile, family and household members who did not travel are exempt from all quarantine rules.

It is permissible to isolate for 14 days in a hotel under the rules, but people should not visit the bar, restaurant or gym areas during their stay.

However, the validity of these measures has been questioned after just 10 fines were issued to those breaking quarantine rules. Nine of the fixed penalty notices were handed out by Border Force officials at the border since the restrictions were introduced, the Home Office said.

After introducing the quarantine measures on those returning from five new nations last week, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said there “had to be a cut off” and argued that holidaymakers had gone abroad in spite of the risk. “I think people this year will have gone away knowing that there was a significant risk,” he said.