Hancock: We’re ‘working on’ plan to scrap quarantine
Matt Hancock confirmed ministers are “working on” plans for quarantine-free overseas trips – but the travel sector hit out at the government’s handling of the pandemic.
The health secretary said the government is looking at how to scrap the requirement for people to isolate for 10 days on their
return to England from an amber list country. He claimed he is “in favour of moving forward in this area” and replacing quarantine with daily testing. “This hasn’t been clinically advised yet – we’re working on it,” he told Sky News. Asked if these plans could be in place as soon as August, Mr Hancock said: “We'll get there when it’s safe to do so.”
Andrew Flintham, managing director of Tui, claimed Whitehall “does not understand” how the travel sector works. He told a conference organised by travel trade association Abta it is “inexplicable” that destinations such as Malta, the Greek islands and the Balearic islands are on the amber list.
Mr Flintham warned that many travel companies are “perilously close to failing”, adding that “every week that goes by just pushes those people closer to that very sad outcome”.
Caroline Lucas, vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said scrapping quarantine requirements now would be “reckless and risks squandering the hard-earned freedoms of the British public again, just like they did last summer”.
At present the only viable holiday destinations from which quarantine is not required are Gibraltar and Iceland. Many other locations have far lower rates of coronavirus than the UK, and the travel industry is calling for a rapid expansion of the quarantine “green list”.
The next review is due tomorrow, with Malta, Italy, Morocco and Spain’s Balearic islands all candidates for moving from the “amber list” to green.
But yesterday the prime minister warned: “I want to stress that this is going to be, whatever happens, a difficult year for travel. There will be hassle, there will be delays, because the priority has got to be to keep the country safe and stop the virus coming back in.”
The travel industry is staging a day of action at Westminster today, calling for fewer restrictions on going abroad and
financial support for agents, operators and airlines.
The Labour Party is demanding tougher travel restrictions, with the 167 countries on the amber list – including Spain, France, Italy and Greece – moved to the “red list”, requiring 11 nights of hotel quarantine.
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