UK set to introduce £1,000 fines for travel quarantine breaches
The UK is today set to introduce a 14-day quarantine for overseas travellers backed up with £1,000 fines to help stop the spread of coronavirus.
The move comes despite opposition from airlines who have argued it will devastate their already struggling industry.
The government is expected to announce that all international arrivals will be required to self-isolate for 14 days and provide details of where they will be staying to the authorities.
The Telegraph reported that those who breached the quarantine would be fined £1,000 with health and border officials carrying out spot checks.
“I can’t say just yet how long this quarantine will last for,” Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis told the BBC. “It is something we will be reviewing every three weeks or so.”
The government has indicated that only those arriving from Ireland would be exempt from the quarantine along with those in a number of specific jobs, such as freight drivers.
Transport minister Grant Shapps has also suggested the government would seek to negotiate “air bridges” for travellers coming from countries with low virus infection rates.
Lewis said full details of the plan, which aims to try to prevent a second peak of the coronavirus pandemic, would be outlined by Home secretary Priti Patel, later today.
Unlike many other countries across the world, Britain has carried out few tests and checks on visitors, with quarantine limited only to arrivals from China at the start of the outbreak.
That has led to accusations that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government had been far too slow to act, but it now also faces criticism over plans to bring in the quarantine.
Airline bosses have said the measures would have severe repercussions, with Michael O’Leary, Ryanair’s chief executive, saying they would be “unenforceable and unpoliceable” and would be ignored.
Some Conservative MPs have also queried the need to bring in a quarantine now, saying it would damage the economy when it has already taken a massive hit from a lockdown.
“The government needs to rethink this quickly and not go into quarantine,” Iain Duncan Smith, told the Telegraph. “If they got their testing level up, then anyone coming in would be tested and put on the tracking app.”