Travellers arriving in England from Covid-19 hotspots from around the world will have to quarantine in hotels, prime minister, Boris Johnson, has announced.
The measures will apply to people coming from most of South America, southern Africa and Portugal, amid concern over new variants of the virus.
Most overseas visitors from those countries are already barred from entering the UK, meaning the new measures will largely impact on British travellers.
However, the opposition Labour party has called for mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals.
British nationals and those with residency rights who arrive from high-risk countries will be required to quarantine in a hotel at their own expense for up ten days, in a bid to improve compliance with self-isolation rules.
Speaking during Prime Minister’s Question Time earlier, Johnson told the House of Commons that all travel from 22 countries with a risk of known new variants had already been banned.
In order to further reduce the risk of variants entering the country, he announced that all such arrivals who cannot be refused entry will be required to isolate in government provided accommodation, such as hotels, for ten days “without exception”.
These arrivals will be met at the airport and