To prevent the circulation of potentially vaccine-resistant coronavirus variants, the United Kingdom announced new restrictions on its borders on Tuesday, February 9. Deploring nearly 113,000 deaths – the worst national record in Europe – the country is afraid of compromising the massive vaccination campaign on which it is counting to gradually lift the strict confinement imposed on its population in the spring.
As of Monday, all travelers arriving in England will have to undergo two PCR tests, on the second and eighth days of a mandatory ten-day quarantine, Health Minister Matt Hancock told MPs.
Any positive test will be subjected to genome analysis to identify a possible variant, and reset the quarantine counter, he added, saying he is working with other nations in the UK for a one-size-fits-all approach. This measure is in addition to the obligation for all travelers to present a negative anti-Covid test carried out within seventy-two hours before their departure.
Mandatory quarantine at the hotel
British residents or Irish arriving from 33 countries deemed to be at high risk – such as South Africa, where a variant is circulating that may be partially resistant to vaccines – will be consigned to a hotel and placed under surveillance for ten days. They will be billed 1,750 pounds (nearly 2,000 euros) for the entire stay and the tests. Arrivals from these countries, which also include Portugal and many South American countries, are already prohibited to people not residing in the United Kingdom.
A study recently demonstrated low efficacy in young adults of the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford against mild forms of Covid-19 caused by the South African variant.
“I will not apologize for the force of these measures, because as a nation we face one of the most significant threats to our public health”, justified Matt Hancock.
Fines, even jail
Violators face heavy penalties, ranging from a 1,000 pound fine (1,125 euros) for a negative test missing on arrival to 10,000 pounds for those who attempt to escape quarantine at the hotel. Travelers who lie about their stay in a country at risk in the ten days preceding their arrival even face up to ten years in prison.
Post-arrival tests such as hotel rooms should be booked prior to departure via an online platform. The government has already booked 4,600 rooms at 16 hotels, with more to follow if needed. While supporting these measures, the Labor Party, the main opposition party, regretted that they did not go far enough.
The United Kingdom is currently under severe containment, after suffering an outbreak of contaminations attributed to the more contagious variant that has appeared in the south of England. He is playing his game on vaccination and has already administered nearly 12.3 million first doses since the launch of the campaign in early December, using two vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca-Oxford. It is on track to meet its goal of vaccinating some 15 million caregivers and people over the age of 70 by mid-February, who account for the majority of deaths.
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