Sources close to the UK government have said UK residents returning from coronavirus hotspots abroad will have to quarantine in hotels from February 15. Owners will be asked to provide accommodation for more than 1,000 new people every day, documents suggest. Passengers will have to stay in their rooms for 10 nights, with security guards accompanying them outside.
Labour called the measures "too little, too late" to deal properly with new overseas strains of Covid. It is beyond comprehension that these measures won't even start until 15 February," said shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds.
The airports thought to be under consideration as locations for quarantine hotels are Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. The rules are expected to apply to UK nationals and residents returning to the country from 30 "red list" Covid-19 hotspots, including several South American and African countries where new Covid variants have detected in large numbers of people.
Kate Nicholls, chief executive of the industry body UK Hospitality, said bosses and staff were ready to provide assistance "as and when hotels will be needed". A further 915 people have died within 28 days of a positive coronavirus test in the UK, according to the government's daily figures. This brings the total number of people to die within 28 days of a positive Covid-19 test to 110,250.
According to revealed documents, the government wants quarantine hotels to be made "available on an exclusive basis". Guests will have three meals a day - hot or cold - in their rooms, with tea, coffee, fruit and water being available.
Security will "accompany any of the arrived individuals to access outside space should they need to smoke or get fresh air", one document says. One hospitality industry source said the government estimated the cost at about £80 per night per person, but there were still questions as to whether passengers or the state would pay. They said that the bill could reach £55m.
With hotel quarantine already in place in the likes of New Zealand and Australia, foreign nationals from high-risk countries are already facing UK travel bans. Mr Thomas-Symonds said: "We are in a race against time to protect our borders against new Covid strains. Yet hotel quarantine will come in to force more than 50 days after the South African strain was discovered."
Labour has called on the government to extend hotel quarantining to those returning to the UK from all countries, not just the areas on the "red list". But the Conservatives described the plan as "implausible", arguing it would mean putting around 20,000 people in hotels every day.
