Travellers arriving in UK will have to enter Covid-19 coronavirus quarantine for 14 days from June
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UK home secretary Priti Patel has confirmed new measures are to be introduced at the UK border in a bid to guard against a second wave of coronavirus infections.
Anyone entering the UK from June 8 onwards will be required to self-isolate for 14 days, in a move that has also been announced in Scotland’s road map out of the lockdown, though more details are expected.
At today's Downing Street briefing Ms Patel said it was important not to squander the hard work of the public in obeying the lockdown by allowing international arrivals at airports to trigger a second wave of infection.
Devolved administrations will decide how the new policy is enforced within their own nations.
Ms Patel said that n England those disobeying the 14 day quarantine could be fined £1000.
Border Force chief Paul Lincoln said that in the case of an arrival not having a safe and suitable place to go they will be required to stay in government-arranged facilities at their own own expense.
However, some key workers, such as medical professionals helping to treat the virus, as well as seasonal agricultural workers staying on the farms where they are working and haulage drivers will be exempt from the scheme.
Ms Patel said: “Now we are past the peak of this virus we must take steps to guard against imported cases triggering a resurgence of this deadly disease. And as the transmission rate across the UK falls and the number of travellers begins to increase, imported cases begin to pose a larger and increased threat.
“This is because they could become a higher proportion of the overall number of infections in the UK and therefore increase the spread of the disease.
"So, with far fewer being infected in this country and with the public having worked so hard to bring the R-number down, any new arrivals entering the country with the disease during this next phase will have a much bigger impact potentially causing a second wave.”
