Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

UK plans hotel quarantine to prevent new coronavirus variants entering the country

UK plans hotel quarantine to prevent new coronavirus variants entering the country

BRITAIN has plans to bring in mandatory quarantine in hotels for some or all arrivals, the country's coronavirus vaccination minister said as he warned the public not to book summer vacations.

Prime minister Boris Johnson has said he was looking at the option of introducing quarantine hotels for those coming to Britain to prevent the risk of 'vaccine-busting' new coronavirus variants entering the country.


Nadhim Zahawi, the minister responsible for the rollout of the UK's Covid-19 vaccination programme, said details of plans would come later on Tuesday(26).

"The government is looking at, as the prime minister has confirmed, the hotel quarantine policy, and we'll make an announcement on this in the appropriate way," he told BBC TV.

Britain has suffered a sharp rise in the number of infections and deaths in the new year, fuelled partly by a new more highly contagious variant of the virus first identified in southeast England.

There has been concern about the possible impact of other strains discovered in South Africa and Brazil, and whether these variants might impact on the effectiveness of vaccines which are seen as key to Britain's way out from strict lockdown measures.

The country has the fifth worst death toll in the world from the pandemic, with 98,531 people dying within 28 days of a positive test, and one of the deepest economic contractions on record.

The BBC reported that the new hotel quarantine requirement would mean arrivals from most of Southern Africa and South America, as well as Portugal, would have to isolate in a hotel for 10 days.

It said there had been 'no definitive decision yet' on those coming from other parts of the world and this was 'still a live issue'. Johnson will chair a meeting with senior ministers on the decision later on Tuesday.

The measures, which would be among the strictest in Europe if introduced, have alarmed the travel industry which is already fighting for survival.

"Let's hope it's for as few markets as possible because quite frankly tourism has already been decimated this year and really this is the last thing we need," Joss Croft, chief executive of UKinbound, which represents Britain's tourism sector, told the BBC.

Zahawi also said the public should not be booking holidays abroad for this summer agreeing it was "absolutely" too soon to do so.

"I think it's far too early," he told Sky News. "There's still 37,000 people in hospital with Covid at the moment, it's far too early for us to even speculate about the summer."

Engine maker Rolls-Royce cut its forecasts for the timing of a recovery on Tuesday due to measures designed to contain the new variants.

More For You

Zubir Ahmed

Ahmed takes up the role of parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department of Health and Social Care. (Photo: X/@zubirahmed)

Seema Malhotra and Zubir Ahmed take new posts in junior minister reshuffle

SEEMA MALHOTRA and Dr Zubir Ahmed have been appointed to new ministerial roles as part of Keir Starmer’s reshuffle, which followed Angela Rayner’s resignation as housing secretary and deputy prime minister.

Ahmed takes up the role of parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department of Health and Social Care.

Keep ReadingShow less
​London Underground

London Underground services will not resume before 8am on Friday September 12. (Photo: Getty Images)

Tube strike begins as RMT stages five-day walkout over pay

Highlights:

  • First London Underground strike since March 2023 begins
  • RMT members stage five-day walkout after pay talks collapse
  • Union demands 32-hour week; TfL offers 3.4 per cent rise
  • Elizabeth line and Overground to run but face heavy demand

THE FIRST London Underground strike since March 2023 has begun, with a five-day walkout over pay and conditions.

Keep ReadingShow less
Indian restaurant loses licence after Home Office catches illegal workers

Mumbai Local has been stripped of its licence by Harrow council. (Photo: LDRS/Google Maps)

Indian restaurant loses licence after Home Office catches illegal workers

AN INDIAN restaurant in north London has lost its licence after it was found to have repeatedly employed illegal workers.

Harrow council determined that the evidence suggested that using illegal workers was a “systemic approach” to running the premises and it had a “lack of trust” in the business to comply with the law.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trump sees Modi, Putin closer to Xi, but insists US-India ties intact

FILE PHOTO: US president Donald Trump meets with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., February 13, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

Trump sees Modi, Putin closer to Xi, but insists US-India ties intact

US PRESIDENT Donald Trump said India and Russia seem to have been "lost" to China after their leaders met with Chinese president Xi Jinping this week, expressing his annoyance at New Delhi and Moscow as Beijing pushes a new world order.

"Looks like we've lost India and Russia to deepest, darkest, China. May they have a long and prosperous future together!" Trump wrote in a social media post accompanying a photo of the three leaders together at Xi's summit in China.

Keep ReadingShow less
Farage pledges Reform UK election push as Tories, Labour falter

Nigel Farage gestures as he speaks during the party's national conference at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, Britain, September 5, 2025. REUTERS/Isabel Infantes

Farage pledges Reform UK election push as Tories, Labour falter

POPULIST leader Nigel Farage vowed to start preparing for government, saying the nation's two main parties were in meltdown and only his Reform UK could ease the anger and despair plaguing the country to "make Britain great again".

To a prolonged standing ovation by a crowd at the annual party conference on Friday (5), Farage for the first time offered a vision of how Britain would be under a Reform government: He pledged to end the arrival of illegal migrants in boats in two weeks, bring back "stop-and-search" policing and scrap net zero policies.

Keep ReadingShow less