Scotland’s government has confirmed it will introduce stricter rules for arrivals to the country from 15 February. The news comes after UK health secretary Matt Hancock announced details of the hotel quarantine measures relating to England earlier today.
As previously announced by first minister Nicola Sturgeon, everyone arriving in Scotland from outside the Common Travel Area – the UK, Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Ireland - will need to book and pay for managed isolation in quarantine hotels to help protect against the importation of coronavirus. All arrivals, including UK and Ireland nationals, will be required to quarantine for at least ten days and will be tested twice for the virus – once on day two and once on day eight after arrival.
The government said six hotels close to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports with a combined capacity of 1,300 rooms will be used to implement the quarantine at a cost of £1,750 per individual traveller.
It said existing travel exemptions would be strengthened, including limiting overseas training for elite sportspeople to athletes and coaches preparing for the Olympics and Paralympics. A small number of arrivals will not be required to isolate, such as those involved in essential supply chains for goods coming into Scotland.
Scottish transport secretary Michael Matheson (pictured) said: “To manage the risk of importing new variants, and to give vaccine deployment the best chance of bringing us closer to normality here in Scotland, we have to place further limits on international travel."
He said that the measures were needed after an analysis by the COG Consortium showed that 40 per cent of new virus lineages in Scotland were imported directly from overseas through international travel last summer.
He added: “The UK government has only committed to adopting this for travellers returning from ‘red list’ countries. However, we know that is not sufficient and we will go further.
“The clinical advice is clear that a comprehensive system of managed quarantine is essential to minimise the impact of new Covid-19 variants."
Matheson said that approximately 1,600 people travelled directly to Scotland in the last week of January, but that fell to only around 730 in the first week of February. However the number of people transiting via international hubs is greater.
The Scottish Government said it would create an aviation working group to address the issues the sector is facing.