UK toughens health measures: travelers entering country will have to undergo two coronavirus tests

UK authorities are analyzing new health measures amid growing concern over the high impact of the new variant of the coronavirus originating in the country. In an attempt to slow the spread of the virus, All travelers entering the country from abroad will have to undergo two covid-19 tests.

The measure, which in principle will be announced on Tuesday, establishes that All people must test negative before their departure – an already mandatory requirement – and then, once on UK soil, they must undergo two more tests on days 2 and 8 of isolation., as indicated by Financial Times.

The travelers themselves They will be responsible for paying for the tests.

These changes represent a strong tightening compared to current protocols. By health recommendation, until today Most people arriving in the country must self-isolate for ten days at a private address, without having to undergo a test.

With the current regime, only those arriving from countries at risk, such as South Africa or Brazil, must stay ten days in hotels designated by the government, which are under close surveillance. This measure will begin to be applied from February 15th.

As part of the plan developed by Downing Street, UK residents returning from more than 30 ‘high-risk’ countries will be transferred by bus to their accommodation, where they will have to remain isolated for ten days.

However, as authorities scramble to reach a deal with the hotel industry, there is no confirmed accommodation yet. Despite this, an announcement is expected for this Tuesday or Wednesday.

Depending on the industry and government officials, Authorities are set to sign with a cluster of hotels just outside London’s Heathrow Airport. They are also optimistic about the possibility of making more deals with accommodation located less than two miles from Manchester, Gatwick, Birmingham and London City airports.

The main source of voltage is in the government’s refusal to offer revenue guarantees to the hotel sector. Hoteliers said authorities are offering to pay only for rooms used to quarantine passengers. This, although the requirement that the facilities be only available to these customers, represents a loss of revenue, because establishments are facing a large number of empty rooms as the government plans to contract more hotels than necessary.

For his part, an industry executive also criticized the short time offered by the executive to implement the new system. “It doesn’t leave a lot of time for hotels, if the announcement is Wednesday, to do it in a way that doesn’t bother customers. [existentes] they will need new housing ”.

“The bosses of the hotel are unwilling to do this. If they accept it, it will only be to try to buy something of goodwill with the ministers, ”another industry person told the Financial Times.

Those in quarantine will receive three meals a day in their rooms, while those who want to smoke outside or get some fresh air will need to be escorted by security personnel.

The cost of each hotel night is estimated to be around £ 80 ($ 110). Details on how passengers are to book their rooms will be released by the government in the coming hours.

The government has so far resisted the application of the new hotel quarantine to all passengers arriving in the UK, therefore, he introduced a more specific program for those returning from the more than 30 countries included in the “red list”. However, this list is updated every Thursday and could be expanded in the coming weeks.

The list is made up of 33 countries, of which South Africa, Portugal, United Arab Emirates and South American countriesr, where there is a prevalence of new strains of coronavirus that scientists have confirmed are more contagious than the original. Foreign travelers from these territories cannot enter the UK and are therefore not affected by this hotel quarantine measure.

Another area of ​​concern is for British tourists who, to avoid quarantine in their country, returning from their vacation via the airports of Ireland, this is why Dublin is analyzing a possible tightening of its travel regulations.

Unlike travelers arriving from other parts of the world, the UK does not require people arriving from Ireland to go through quarantine due to the common travel area between the two countries. While people traveling to Ireland from overseas must have a negative coronavirus test, this rule does not apply to people transferred to other international flights after arriving at Irish airports.

Simon coveney, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ireland, has acknowledged that the government will act if it finds that, as a result of this situation, “a serious problem arises”.

The UK is making progress on its vaccination plan and has already delivered the first of two doses of Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines to more than 10 million people.

The British government on Monday reported 14,104 new covid-19 infections, the lowest figure since early December, although the number of hospital patients stood at 29,326, above peaks reached in previous waves of the pandemic.

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