Coronavirus: Portugal return to quarantine list would cause ‘chaos and hardship’

Holidaymakers will face “chaos and hardship” if coronavirus quarantine measures are reintroduced for these arriving to the UK from Portugal, a journey business chief has warned.

Portugal has recorded 21.1 virus circumstances per 100,000 individuals up to now week.

The UK considers imposing 14 days of isolation on travellers when a rustic’s an infection fee exceeds 20 circumstances per 100,000, over seven days.

The boss of British Airways’s father or mother agency mentioned the numbers had been “arbitrary”.

Writing within the Instances, IAG chief government Willie Walsh mentioned the “ever-changing” quarantine necessities meant “the UK has formally hung up the ‘closed’ signal”.

“One other U-turn by the federal government, including Portugal to the quarantine list, will cause additional chaos and hardship for travellers,” he mentioned.

“The federal government is utilizing arbitrary statistics to successfully ban 160 nations and within the course of destroying the financial system.”

As of 31 August, the UK recorded 24.zero coronavirus circumstances per 100,000 individuals over the previous fortnight, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

There have been 21.1 circumstances per 100,000 individuals in Portugal within the seven days to 30 August, up from 19.four within the seven days to 29 August.

So-called travel corridors – which permit individuals to journey with out having to self-isolate on their return – have been scrapped between England and at the very least 18 nations and territories over the previous month, together with fashionable vacationer locations resembling France and Spain.

Ministers have mentioned this cautious strategy prevents coronavirus circumstances being imported.

Searches for flights to Portugal from the UK rose after a journey hall between the UK and Portugal was confirmed.

It got here into impact on 22 August – the identical day as UK vacationers spent 1000’s of kilos on new flights and endured lengthy drives in a race to get residence earlier than quarantine measures kicked in for these getting back from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Division for Transport has not commented on whether or not necessities for arrivals from Portugal will change in response to the rise in circumstances.

Travellers to Switzerland, Jamaica and the Czech Republic had been the most recent to have to self-isolate for 2 weeks, after a rule change on Saturday.

The UK launched the obligatory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from abroad in early June.

The next month, the 4 UK nations unveiled lists of “journey corridors”, detailing nations that had been exempt from the rule.

In July, the Portuguese authorities expressed “remorse” on the UK’s choice to proceed to exclude it from the secure journey list.

The UK supplies the biggest variety of abroad vacationers to Portugal, with greater than two million vacationers visiting yearly.

The Algarve coast is the most well-liked vacation spot, with 1.2 million guests from the UK final 12 months.

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