Concerns about dangerous variants of Covid-19 from abroad have led to new quarantine rules for British, Irish and people with UK residence rights arriving in England when coming from or having passed through a red list (travel banned) country within the 10 previous days (
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/booking-and-staying-in-a-quarantine-hotel-when-you-arrive-in-england). The rules will apply from the 15th of February (having given ample time for some people to pre-empt their imposition). Such arrivals will only be able to come in via 5 English airports (different schemes apply to Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales). Travellers have to pre-book 10 day slots in 'managed hotels' (for which they pay £1750 per person, with reduced rates for children). They are also required to take tests for Covid-19 (again at their own expense) on or before 2 day and on or after day 8. There are penalties for making false claims, failure to pre-book the hotel etc. Although the documentation suggests there are only a few exceptions to these rules, the list is quite extensive and complex. Families, travelling with individuals who are exceptions can sometimes also escape the requirement to go into a quarantine hotel. Exceptions include hauliers arriving from Portugal, defense personnel, visiting forces, government contractors, people on Border security duties, International escorts undertaking extradition work, Crown servants, diplomatic missions, International organisations, conferences, representatives of foreign countries or territories etc. I can understand the reasoning behind some of the exceptions but none of these categories are recognised by Sars-CoV-2. Very mixed outcomes have been seen in the hotel quarantine arrangements used by other countries in this pandemic. There might well in problems in this scheme. Furthermore, it is not at all improbable that arrivals, who are not from a red list country, will sit near people in departure halls of airports, prior to arriving in the England (they could pick up a variant to bring 'home'). It probably would be illegal but what's to stop people flying into Northern Ireland, Scotland or Wales, if they think they can get away with it? It has been said before but partial quarantine isn't a very effective process. There seem to be too many holes in the borders to keep the variants out.
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Its has also been suggested that 'people of high economic worth' (e.g. CEOs of larger companies responsible for lots of 'jobs') will be exceptions (if they are not travelling by private plane?). This seems likely to add to the recipe of resentments of people who are not exceptions?
It seems that, currently, no international flights come into Northern Ireland or Wales. The major problem seems to be with Scotland. They require ALL arrivals (red list or not) to quarantine in the hotels. Their government worry that some Scots residents, coming in from non-red list locations, will choose to land in England, to avoid quarantine before travelling home. Some travellers from red-list locations have confirmed that they had been sitting close to people flying into England, who were not required to quarantine.
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