Fears are growing holidaymakers coming back from France could be ordered to quarantine as the holiday destination’s coronavirus rates increased steadily to 13.2 new infections per 100,000 people in the past month. Chancellor Rishi Sunak sent a warning to Britons today, saying the Government would “not hesitate” to take action after French figures suggested the spread of the invisible killer disease is worse than in the UK, which has a rate of 8.4.
Express.co.uk is asking you should France be next holiday destination to face UK quarantine rules?
It comes as Mr Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling abroad during the coronavirus crisis.
He said on Friday ministers will “not hesitate” in ordering travellers coming back from countries with high COVID-19 rates to isolate for 14 days, as Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas lost their exempted status.
Travellers returning to the UK from those three nations from Saturday must enter quarantine, and there are fears those coming back from France could be next with cases there increasing.
Mr Sunak told Sky News: “It’s a tricky situation. What I can say to people is we’re in the midst of a global pandemic and that means there is always the risk of disruption to travel plans and people need to bear that in mind.
“It’s the right thing for us to do to keep everything under review on a constant basis talking with our scientists, our medical advisers, and if we need to take action as you’ve seen overnight we will of course not hesitate to do that and we’re doing that to protect people’s health.”
READ MORE: France warning: Rishi Sunak warns of travel ban risk
He said he “cannot rule out” other countries being included on the list, as officials keep overseas infection rates under close observation.The measure will come into force in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland from 4am on Saturday after they wereintroduced in Wales from Friday.
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office also updated its travel advice to warn against all but essential trips to the three countries.
Brunei and Malaysia have been added to the Government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in confirmed casesof coronavirus meaning arrivals from these countries no longer need to quarantine.
In Andorra, new cases per week have increased five-fold since mid-July, while in the Bahamas the weekly case rate peaked at 78.6 last week, up from 3.1 in the middle of last month.
The UK’s move to add Spain onto the quarantine list on July 26 sparked a diplomatic row with the nation and caught out holidaymakers who had already flown over, including Mr Shapps.
It also angered transport bosses who have called for increased testing to reduce the isolation period.
Luxembourg was added to the UK’s red list on July 31.
The Foreign Office says it keeps its own travel advice “under constant review”.
