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HOLIDAY’s plans were thrown into chaos tonight after the government delayed adding Portugal and Greece to the 14-day quarantine list.
British tourists who paid up to £ 550 for flights to return home and avoid a two-week isolation were furious after Grant Shapps said the countries were still on the safe list.
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One Twitter user said: “A colleague just landed at Gatwick and paid £ 550.
“He was due back on Saturday. His children are all crying when they cut the holidays short.”
Cases in Portugal reached 23 per 100,000 people on Wednesday, surpassing the benchmark of 20 that has caused other countries to be added to the quarantine list.
There was further confusion when Wales put Portugal and the Greek islands of Mykonos, Zante, Lesbos, Paros, Antiparos and Crete on its quarantine list starting at 4 a.m. today.
And the rules are different in Scotland, where arrivals must be quarantined for a fortnight after Nicola Sturgeon put Portugal on the list starting at 4 a.m. tomorrow.
In announcing the decision tonight, Shapps tweeted: “Today there are no additions or deletions in English.”
Tonight, the low-cost airline Jet2 canceled all flights to mainland Spain, as well as Dubrovnik and Split, in Croatia, for the rest of the summer.
Meanwhile, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the airport tests for Covid-19 “do not work,” saying only seven percent of positive cases would be detected.
Some Brits basking in the sun in Portugal took to Twitter to rejoice at the news tonight.
Kunta Smith tweeted a photo of her hotel pool from her lounger saying, “Cheers Grant.”
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Melani Berman tweeted: “Thank you for leaving Portugal alone, may it last long … I need my LOW risk Algarve holiday at the end of the month, booked last year. Infection rates in the Algarve are recognized to be very low “.
However, other Brits were furious after booking flights home for today amid speculation that Portugal was going to be removed from the travel corridor.
A holidaymaker who spent nearly £ 1,000 switching her family’s flights home from the Algarve to avoid having to quarantine her accused the government of “moving the goalposts left, right and center” after Portugal remained on the exempt list.
Kelly Jones, from Birmingham, said she paid Jet2 £ 900 to move her flights home from Faro from Saturday to Friday in anticipation of the quarantine measures being reintroduced, to ensure her three children don’t miss two weeks of school.
Ms. Jones, 45, called the situation “absolutely disgusting” and said, “It has cost us a lot more money and it is money we don’t need to spend now.”
“We lost an extra night in our villa, we will not get it back, we have a rental car, so we will get it back the day before. There are also collateral effects.”
Jonathan Lake of Cardiff said he was “furious” that he and his family would have to quarantine them upon their return from Crete.
I was even thinking of booking a hotel in England for two weeks to avoid it.
Lake is staying with his wife and two children near Chania and was angered by the decision of the Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething and the delegate government to deviate from the UK quarantine lists.
He said: “It’s the lack of consistent messaging and management across the UK government that I’m really mad at right now.
“And the fact that they announced it at five o’clock UK time, so at 7pm they said ‘you have until 4am to get home.’
“I mean, what, am I supposed to charter a private jet to try and get my family and me home?”
But former Prime Minister Tony Blair warned that uncertainty about quarantine rules was “killing” international travel.
Calling for the general 14-day quarantine rules to be lifted, he told BBC Two’s Newsnight: “I don’t think it is necessary to do a 14-day quarantine when I return to the country. That’s if you want literally zero risk. “
This comes as Scotland is set to add Portugal to its quarantine list this weekend, according to BBC Scotland.
This means that travelers arriving in Scotland from Portugal will potentially have to isolate themselves for 14 days.
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Heathrow has already unveiled a coronavirus testing center that could lower the quarantine, but ministers have yet to back the policy.
Last month it was reported that the government was considering a dual testing scheme that would test some upon arrival and then the rest several days after isolation.
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It could tell if they had caught the bug and needed to isolate themselves further, or if they were negative and could get out of quarantine.
But ministers have yet to make an announcement and have repeatedly rejected the idea.
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