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According to plans to be decided by ministers over the next 24 hours, some travelers will be put on buses and driven directly to isolation centers.
At a minimum, the measure will apply to Britons returning from countries like Brazil and South Africa, which are known to have dangerous new mutations of the coronavirus.
But the ministers do not rule out extending the plan to all passengers and countries to defend themselves against the risk of another mutation that no one knows yet.
“We have to realize that there is at least a theoretical risk that a new variant will be introduced, a variant that will destroy vaccines,” he said. “So we will have to keep that under control.”
The dramatic move to defend the UK from more deadly Covid-19 mutations is by far the toughest border measure yet.
The key question for the ministers, who are in meetings with scientists today, is whether to target the measure only at passengers who have visited countries such as Brazil and South Africa or whether to target passengers from other countries.
Cabinet hawks, including Health Secretary Matt Hancock, say mutations could exist in countries that lack advanced genome control with no one realizing the threat exists until it arrives.
The most severe option is to insist on quarantine for all passengers, which would require thousands of hotel rooms and monitoring. Passengers will need to pay hotel bills and will also need to test negative for coronavirus before being released.
Johnson continued: “Right now the UK already has one of the strictest regimes in the world. Don’t forget everyone when you come to the UK that you must have a proof 72 hours before you fly, you must have a passenger locator form, the airline will kick you if you don’t produce any of those. And then they test their passenger locator form. And then of course you have to quarantine yourself for 10 days, five days with another negative test. ”
Approximately 6.3 million people have been vaccinated in Britain.
Mr. Hancock signaled his support for the strict measures when he said yesterday: “The new variant that really concerns me is the one that is out there and has not been detected.
“There are probably others elsewhere that just haven’t been detected because the country doesn’t have that genomic sequencing service.”
There are 77 known cases of the South African variant in the UK and nine of the Brazilian. All cases of the South African variant have been related to travel. He said Brazil and South Africa detected the variants because they had “decent-size” genomic sequencing programs, but other countries were less covered.
Yesterday, the Secretary of Health criticized influential people and celebrities while criticizing people traveling abroad amid the pandemic. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr program, Hancock said: “International travel, at this time, shouldn’t happen unless absolutely necessary. There are no parties in Paris and no weekends in Dubai. This is not activated and, in most cases, it is illegal ”.
77
Number of known cases of the South African variant in Great Britain.
There are nine Brazilians
The comments came after various social media influencers were criticized for trips to Dubai they documented on Instagram.
His reference to “parties in Paris” comes after model Kate Moss spent her 47th birthday in the French capital with her boyfriend Nikolai von Bismarck and daughter Lila Grace.
Sources told The Mail on Sunday that Moss had to travel for work and was forced to interrupt a Caribbean holiday to do so.
In other developments, Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer is self-isolating for the third time after he came into contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus.
Sir Keir wrote on Twitter: “This morning I was notified to isolate myself after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19.
“I have no symptoms and I will be working from home until next Monday.”
