First passengers from ‘red list’ countries arrive at Heathrow’s quarantine hotel

The first passengers have started to arrive at Government-approved hotels as the travel quarantine scheme begins in England. From today, UK and Irish residents arriving in the country after visiting or passing through ‘red list’ countries must quarantine in a designated hotel room for 10 days.

Heathrow’s first passengers arrived at The Radisson as the hotel quarantine programme launches today (Picture: PA/Reuters)

Pictures this morning show the first cohort of masked travellers arriving in coaches and lugging suitcases into The Radisson Blue Edwardian Hotel near Heathrow Airport to check in. During their stay, they must remain in their assigned room and are not allowed to mix with other guests. They are only permitted to leave their room for exercise, for urgent medical assistance or to attend the funeral of a close relative.

They have paid £1,750 per person for the mandatory ‘quarantine package’, which includes the hotel room, transport to the accommodation, and Covid-19 testing. All passengers will be tested on day two and eight of their hotel stay and if either of the tests come back positive, they will have spend another 10 days in the room from the date of the rest. But concerns have already been raised over a lack of protocols in place at Heathrow Airport to segregate passengers arriving from any of the 33 red list countries.

Passengers arrive at London Heathrow’s Terminal 5 on the first flight to the airport from one of 33 ‘red list’ countries (Picture: PA)

The first passengers checked into the Radisson this morning (Picture: PA)

This means passengers could face queues of up to five hours as part of an ‘unacceptable’ system which leaves them free to mix with people returning from Covid-19 hotspots. Border Force checks carried out to identify if a passenger has arrived from a ‘red list’ country are expected to double the standard arrival time to 15 minutes per person. Heathrow has now urged ministers to ensure there are ‘adequate resources and effective processes’ in place to reduce the delays as they fear Border Force won’t be able to ‘cope’.

Travellers who have been in any of the 33 Covid-hotspot countries – including popular destinations such as Portugal, the United Arab Emirates and all countries in South American – in the past 10 days are required to book their ‘quarantine package’ in advance online. Under the new travel rules, travellers must fill out passenger locator forms to declare the where they have arrived from. Those found to be lying on their form or those who do quarantine could be punished with a £10,000 fine, 10 years in prison, or both.

 

Passengers will spend the next 10 days in their designated rooms (Picture: Reuters)

Heathrow airport has already raised concerns over five-hour queues at Border Control (Picture: PA)

A coach delivers passengers to the Radisson Blu Edwardian Hotel, near Heathrow Airport (Picture: PA)

The passengers must pay £1,750 per person for the ‘quarantine package’ (Picture: Reuters)

 

Meanwhile, all travellers arriving into Scotland by air – rather than just those returning from high-risk countries – must go into quarantine hotels. In England, travellers may only arrive into Heathrow Airport, Gatwick Airport, London City Airport, Birmingham Airport, Farnborough Airport or any military airfield or port, according to the rules. The Government has so far struck deals with 16 hotels offering 4,963 rooms, with a further 58,000 rooms currently on stand-by, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said.

However, Heathrow Airport warned ‘significant gaps’ remain in the hotel quarantine plan and that it is yet to receive the ‘necessary reassurances’ from the Government. On Sunday night, a spokeswoman said: ‘We have been working hard with the Government to support the successful implementation of the managed quarantine policy from Monday. ‘Good progress has been made to address a number of issues. Queues at the border in recent days have been almost five hours and this is totally unacceptable. ‘Border Force today have given us assurance that they will have resource and effective processes at the border to avoid compromising the safety of passengers and those working at the airport, which could necessitate the suspension of some arriving flights.’ Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

 

Source:https://metro.co.uk/2021/02/15