From today, the penalties faced by travellers who fail to quarantine
after returning to the UK from countries that are not on the government’s ‘safe’ travel
corridors list will increase tenfold.
The penalties, which mirror those recently announced
for those breaching self-isolation following a positive Covid test or contact
from Test & Trace, will now increase incrementally for repeat offenders -
rising from £1,000 for first offences up to £10,000 for subsequent offences. Previously,
the penalties ranged from £100 to £1,000.
At the same time, the government has removed five destinations from
the travel corridor list.
Travellers to the UK from Poland and Turkey will have to quarantine
for 14 days after arrival from 4am this Saturday 3 October after the government
removed the countries from its safe list.
The government also removed the Caribbean islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba from the
list of countries and regions where isolating on arrival in the UK is not
required.
Turkey was removed after the country’s
health ministry said it has been defining the number of new Covid-19
cases in a different way to the definition used by international organisations
such as the WHO. As a result, the UK government has changed its risk assessment
of the country.
Data from Poland has shown a 66 per cent increase in
the weekly incidence (cases) per 100,000, rising from 14.7 on 23 September to
24.4 on 30 September. Test positivity for Poland has nearly doubled in a week,
increasing from 3.9 per cent to 5.8 per cent too.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office now advises against all but essential travel to all five of the
destinations removed from the list.