UK Covid live: visitors from ’red list’ countries will have to pay £1,750 for hotel quarantine, Hancock says | Politics | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2021/feb/09/uk-covid-live-matt-hancock-coronavirus-latest-updates
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In the Commons Huw Merriman (Con) asks how long these restrictions will last. In response, Matt Hancock says he wants to be able to exit from these arrangements as soon as it is practical and as soon as it is safe.But he does not say when this is likely to be. And he points out that, at last night’s No 10 press conference, Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said the government would need to know the vaccines were effective against all variants of the virus before a full easing of restrictions. Hancock said this was still a matter of uncertainty.
Jonathan Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, told MPs that the government’s plans did not go far enough because half the countries where the South African variant has been identified are not included on the “red list”. He said: Our first line of defence is surely to do everything we can to stop [new variant] arising in the first place. That means securing our borders to isolate new variants as they come in. He’s announced a detailed package today but he hasn’t announced comprehensive quarantine controls at the borders.
So why then when over half of the countries where the South Africa variant has been identified - why are over half of them not on the so-called red list?
And indeed according to newspaper reports he wanted to go further with more extensive quarantine arrangements. I want that as well, the British public want that as well, so I will work with him to make that happen so we can strengthen our borders and fix any holes in this nation’s defences.
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