Germany and France next for a UK quarantine? It's under review, junior minister says

[webfact]

Germany and France next for a UK quarantine? It's under review, junior minister says

By Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton

 

A woman walks past a Flight Centre travel agency, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Chester, Britain, July 3, 2020. REUTERS/Molly Darlington

 

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is watching coronavirus cases in Germany and France closely and continuously reviewing the situation in popular holiday destinations, a junior health minister said on Monday when asked about widening a quarantine for Spain.

 

Britain slapped a 14-day quarantine on travellers from Spain on Sunday after a surge of cases in Catalonia and Murcia, heralding a summer of COVID-19 chaos for Europe's holiday season.

 

The decision, leaked ahead of an official announcement on Saturday, upset the plans of hundreds of thousands of British tourists sunning themselves on the shores of the Mediterranean and raised the spectre of limits on more countries.

 

"We have to keep the situation under review and I think that is what the public would expect us to do," junior health minister Helen Whately told Sky News when asked about Germany and France possibly being next to face a quarantine.

 

"If we see rates going up in a country where at the moment there is no need to quarantine, if we see the rates going up, we would have to take action because we cannot take the risk of coronavirus being spread again across the UK," she said.

 

A total of 9,835 flights are scheduled to leave the UK for Spain between July 26 and Aug. 31, which equates to a total of approximately 1.8 million scheduled seats, according to Aviation data analysts Cirium.

 

Germany, France and the United Kingdom are by far the biggest European tourism spenders. Airline and travel shares tumbled: EasyJet fell 13%, British Airways' owner, IAG, fell 7% and the TUI travel company fell 8%.

 

Ryanair is not planning to reduce capacity flying to Spain after the British government's "regrettable" decision to advise against all non-essential travel to the country's mainland due to COVID-19, Chief Financial Officer Neil Sorahan said.

 

ISLANDS TOO?

Spain, long a favourite of British sunseekers, said it was safe for tourists and was trying to convince London that it should exclude the Balearic and Canary islands from the quarantine measure.

 

"For some of the islands, the rates are indeed going up, also there is some movement of travel between the islands and the mainland, so we had to do a clear policy that would best protect the United Kingdom," Whately told the BBC.

 

TUI UK, part of the TUI holiday company, said it would cancel all holidays to mainland Spain up to Aug. 9, while maintaining flights to the Balearic and Canary islands.

 

"What we'd really like - and I think we are going to need this going forward as the world evolves - is a nuanced policy," TUI managing director Andrew Flintham told the BBC.

 

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; Editing by Nick Macfie)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-27

 

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[bannork]

 The UK tourists who visited Spain don't have to quarantine on their return, hey, they only went to test their eyesight.

[tribalfusion001]

Like anyone is going to take notice of 14 day quarantine when the border force doesn't do spot checks, but it's trying to stop a 2nd wave being imported, such utter BS.

[mrfill]

The new outbreak in Spain is in Catalunya and Aragon - about 1100km from London.

The Canaries are just over 2000km from Barcelona but the dim UK government seem to have lost their map.

Its like locking down Gibraltar because there has been an outbreak in Birmingham.

[puipuitom]

One thing for sure: The experience of Boris with corona opened his eyes. 

[3NUMBAS]

[Kadilo]

Boris says no more mass lockdowns only local ones as in Leicester, then decides to group all of Spain  as one, including the Islands. 
 

Total Hypocrite. 

[tribalfusion001]

7 hours ago, Kadilo said:

Boris says no more mass lockdowns only local ones as in Leicester, then decides to group all of Spain  as one, including the Islands. 
 

Total Hypocrite. 

Total <deleted> that he is...

 

Need a revolution this year.

Edited July 28, 2020 by tribalfusion001

[daveAustin]

On 7/27/2020 at 11:15 AM, tribalfusion001 said:

Like anyone is going to take notice of 14 day quarantine when the border force doesn't do spot checks, but it's trying to stop a 2nd wave being imported, such utter BS.

Makes no difference, my friend, which is why other countries, like Thighland, have tests-PLUS-quarantine because it takes times to show. 

[daveAustin]

8 hours ago, Kadilo said:

Boris says no more mass lockdowns only local ones as in Leicester, then decides to group all of Spain  as one, including the Islands. 
 

Total Hypocrite. 

Stroll on, is everyone thick in here or just me? He has no control of outside sources lol. Bang on point this time to be fair. Get a big second wave through Spain and the numpty contingent (folk like yourself) would be all over him like a cheap suit.

[Kadilo]

6 hours ago, daveAustin said:

Stroll on, is everyone thick in here or just me? 

Just you.