UK to introduce 14-day quarantine for international arrivals

Travellers arriving in Britain will face 14 days in quarantine from next month to prevent a second coronavirus outbreak, the government announced on Friday, warning that anyone breaking the rules faced a fine or prosecution.

The new rules will apply to all international arrivals except Ireland from June 8 and come after weeks of calls for tougher restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. Healthcare professionals travelling to work in the crisis, seasonal agricultural workers and those working in freight and road haulage, among others, who will also be exempt.

Home Secretary Priti Patel said the restrictions were designed to "protect the British public by reducing the risk of cases crossing our border".

"We are introducing these new measures now to keep the transmission rate down and prevent a devastating second wave," she added.

"I fully expect the majority of people will do the right thing and abide by these measures. "But we will take enforcement action against the minority of people who endanger the safety of others."

The quarantine move is controversial, especially with the aviation sector, where flights have been grounded and passenger numbers slumped during lockdown measures.

Britain has the second-highest death toll in the world in the global pandemic, and the government has been criticised for not imposing border checks and quarantine sooner.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary this week branded a proposed quarantine plan "idiotic" and accused ministers of "making it up as they go along". Virgin Atlantic said quarantine would prevent services from resuming and claimed there "simply won't be sufficient demand to resume passenger services before August at the earliest".

Trade body Airlines UK has said it "would effectively kill" international travel to the UK.

Others have questioned why Britain did not introduce quarantine earlier, like countries such as South Korea, Spain and the United States.

"The UK has been rather too much on the back foot, increasingly playing catch-up, firefighting," geneticist and Nobel Prize winner Paul Nurse told the BBC.