Shambles as No10. keeps Portugal and Greece ON the quarantine-free list despite days of speculation over soaring cases sparking holidaymakers to make scramble back before TONIGHT
- Greece and Portugal stay on England’s quarantine-free list, despite Covid rise
- Senior source tells MailOnline Portugal’s rate of infection has actually lowered
- Rate of Covid cases in Portugal has been above 20 per 100,000 for three days
- Scotland and Wales reimposed quarantine rules on Greece earlier this week
The Government has decided to keep Portugal and Greece on the quarantine-free list, despite days of speculation over soaring cases sparking holidaymakers to make a scramble home tonight.
Following a week of speculation, the Transport Minister tweeted today: ‘We continue to keep the Travel Corridor list under constant review & won’t hesitate to remove countries if needed.
‘However, there are no English additions or removals today.
‘Nonetheless, holidaymakers are reminded – 14-day quarantine countries can & do change at very short notice.’
There has been widespread speculation this week that Portugal could be added to the UK’s quarantine list – but today Grant Shapps has announced there will be no changes
Sources told MailOnline that although Portugal was above the ‘trigger’ threshold for cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day period, that appeared to be because they were carrying out more tests.
‘The rate of positives per test has actually gone down,’ one senior source said.
The rate of Covid cases in Portugal has been above 20 per 100,000 for the past three days – the level at which the government considers introducing a quarantine.
The rate of coronavirus cases per 100,000 of population in Greece over the past seven days is just 14 – well short of the government’s quarantine threshold of 20
Yesterday the number of new cases rose to 390 from 231 the day before, suggesting the current seven-day average of 22.7 will not decrease.
Meanwhile, cases in Greece are currently at a similar level to the UK.
The Government’s announcement comes after many holidaymakers booked flights home costing up to £554 to avoid a potential quarantine requirement.
People arriving in England from countries not on the travel corridor list are required to self-isolate for 14 days.
The Government was also under pressure to reimpose quarantine rules on arrivals from Greece after Scotland and Wales introduced restrictions earlier this week.
Rising Covid cases prompted the Scottish Government to announce travellers from Greece would have to self-isolate for 14 days from today, while Wales began asking arrivals from the island of Zante to enter quarantine.
The UK’s biggest tour operator Tui has suspended its holidays to the resort of Laganas on Zante.
But Greece has insisted it is doing ‘everything in our power’ to keep UK holidaymakers safe.
There were 14.3 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Greece in the seven days to September 1, up from 14.1 a week earlier. This is a similar rate to the UK and still below the quarantine threshold.
It comes as rising cases in Portugal were prompting many UK tourists to pay hundreds of pounds to fly home before Saturday.
Earlier today the UK announced 1,735 new coronavirus cases in the biggest daily spike since June 4, when 1,805 were diagnosed with the disease and before the lifting of several lockdown restrictions.
The seven-day rolling average is now 1,435, a 26 per cent increase in a singular week as figures suggest cases are not slowing down.