Greece and Croatia could be next on UK quarantine list
Popular holiday destinations Greece and Croatia may be the next two countries on the UK’s travel quarantine list, after increasing rates of coronavirus.
Croatia has now passed the 20 cases per 100,000 threshold that the government has used as a benchmark as to whether a country has a high Covid-19 infection rate.
Greece saw its coronavirus rate double last week alone and now has an infection rate of 13.54 per 100,000 cases.
This means the country’s Covid rate has quadrupled since last month.
Greece’s increase in confirmed infections comes after it opened up for overseas travellers earlier this summer.
The Mediterranean country is a particularly popular destination for UK travellers, with 3.5m Britons going to Greece last year.
The government has acted swiftly in other cases to implement travel quarantines, with France and Netherlands placed on the list last Thursday.
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By Saturday, people coming to the UK from these countries had to self-isolate for 14 days.
Travellers returning from Spain and Portugal also have to self-isolate.
When asked about the prospect of Greece and Croatia being added to the UK quarantine list, the Prime Minsiter’s spokesperson said: “We continue to keep these rules under constant review and we have published a list of the countries and territories we are concerned about.”
The Greek government has tried to slow the rates of Covid-19 infection by placing a curfew on bars in some of the country’s popular island destinations.
This includes Mykonos, Santorini, Corfu, Rhodes, Zante and Crete.
Some business owners are complaining that the new measures will destroy the tourism and hospitality industries.
Bar owner Stavros Grimplas told the Associated Press: “Everyone has come [to Mykonos] to eat their food, to entertain themselves, swim in the sea.
“At this moment we are fooling them.”