The first passengers have started to arrive at Government-approved hotels as the travel quarantine scheme begins in England.
From today, UK and Irish residents arriving in the country after visiting or passing through ‘red list’ countries must quarantine in a designated hotel room for 10 days.
Pictures this morning show the first cohort of masked travellers arriving in coaches and lugging suitcases into The Radisson Blue Edwardian Hotel near Heathrow Airport to check in.
During their stay, they must remain in their assigned room and are not allowed to mix with other guests. They are only permitted to leave their room for exercise, for urgent medical assistance or to attend the funeral of a close relative.
They have paid £1,750 per person for the mandatory ‘quarantine package’, which includes the hotel room, transport to the accommodation, and Covid-19 testing.
All passengers will be tested on day two and eight of their hotel stay and if either of the tests come back positive, they will have spend another 10 days in the room from the date of the rest.
But concerns have already been raised over a lack of protocols in place at Heathrow Airport to segregate passengers arriving from any of the 33 red list countries amid lengthy queues at Border Control.
This means passengers could face queues of up to five hours in the ‘unacceptable’ system which leaves them free to mix with people returning from Covid-19 hotspots.
Border Force checks to identify if a passenger has arrived from a ‘red list’ country are expected to double the standard arrival time to 15 minutes per person.
Heathrow has now urged ministers to ensure there are ‘adequate resources and effective processes’ to reduce the delays as they fear Border Force won’t be able to ‘cope’.
Travellers who have been in any of the 33 Covid-hotspot countries in the past 10 days are required to book their ‘quarantine package’ in advance online.
The Government has so far struck deals with 16 hotels offering 4,963 rooms, with a further 58,000 rooms currently on stand-by, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.
Travellers may only arrive into Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, London City Airport, Birmingham Airport, Farnborough Airport or any military airfield or port, according to the rules.
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source https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/15/first-passengers-arrive-at-heathrows-quarantine-hotel-14082535/