The government has confirmed that its plan to place all arriving passengers from high-risk areas into government allocated hotels for a mandatory quarantine will begin on Monday 15 February. However, it has yet to confirm which hotels (no contracts have yet been put in place) and crucially, if the government or the passengers will foot the bill.
How will quarantine work?
The government announced the plan to quarantine arrivals in hotels on 27 January. Guests will have to stay for ten nights in one of the hotels, and kept under watch by security personnel if they want to go outside to smoke or get some fresh air. Guests will take all meals in their rooms with fruit, tea, coffee and water being available at any time.
It is estimated that this will impact about 1,000 people per day under the current levels and according to the BBC, hotel are expected to be near the large U.K. airports–Heathrow, Gatwick, London City, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen. Fines will be given out for non-compliance, in the hope that this will deter people from coming.
Opposition to the government has demanded that all incoming passengers should be subject to hotel quarantine but the government has said this would be unworkable–as currently 20,000 incoming passengers arrive into the U.K. every day. In addition, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) stated that it would cost the economy £548 million ($753 million) per day.
It is believed, but not yet confirmed, that it will cost £80-£100 per night, possibly costing as much as £1,500 ($2,061) for each arrival. Other countries currently use hotel quarantine for arrivals; Australia and Thailand make passengers pay but in New Zealand, it is the government which pays, as reported by The Financial Times.
There are currently 33 red list countries
Arrivals from 33 countries with high infection rates of Covid-19 will likely be affected; Angola, Argentina, Bolivia, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ecuador, Eswatini, French Guiana, Guyana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Portugal (including Madeira and the Azores), Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Suriname, Tanzania, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Uruguay, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Residents from these countries are currently banned from entry to the U.K. so it is most likely that the majority of people affected by the U.K. hotel quarantine will be returning U.K. nationals or third country nationals with residence rights in the U.K.
Scotland plans to go further, as reported by City A.M., and place all arrivals into hotel quarantine. There is no detail, as yet, on how arrivals–who don’t fly direct from banned countries–will be checked to confirm they quarantine.
U.K. government criticised for chaotic roll-out
As reported by The Telegraph, the government has yet to appoint any hotels to take part in the scheme and has come under serious criticism. The BBC reported that the government has had discussions with more than 60 companies but that no "formal contracts" had been agreed because, a government spokesperson said, “it was ‘vital’ that the government got this right from the start.”
Foreign office minister James Cleverly defended the U.K.’s hotel quarantine plans from criticism. “We need time to prepare, we need time to make sure this works," he told Sky News. “That’s why we’ve given the hotel industry notice to give them time to prepare, train staff and to get their rooms ready.”
Cleverly did not deny either that the government would pay the hotel cost, rather than the passengers.
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