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Hotel quarantines for all UK arrivals and facial recognition technology to check that travelers are properly isolated are some of the new measures proposed to stamp out new strains of Covid at UK borders.
- Officials have been told to prepare GPS technology to ensure isolation
- Newcomers could be forced to pay for airport hotel stays while isolating themselves
- Travelers pay up to £ 2,500 for secluded hotel stays in Australia
All arrivals to the UK could face staying in new quarantine hotels under plans to reduce the transmission of new coronavirus variants from abroad.
Officials have been told to prepare to use facial recognition and GPS technology to ensure that people remain isolated when they arrive in the country.
The plans go beyond Boris Johnson’s announcement on Friday starting at 4am Monday, all travel brokers will be suspended and anyone coming to the UK must have proof of a negative test within the previous 72 hours.
Visitors must pay for the hotel stay themselves according to the proposed plans.
All arrivals to the UK could face staying in new quarantine hotels under plans to reduce the transmission of new coronavirus variants from abroad. Pictured: Travelers arrive at London Heathrow Airport on Saturday
Public officials were asked to study New Zealand’s “targeted isolation” policy, the Sunday Times reported.
Arrivals are charged with the stay in an airport hotel and are forced to remain isolated for two weeks in the country.
In Australia, travelers pay between £ 1,500 and £ 2,500 for secluded hotel stays of between 14 and 24 days.
Officials also spoke about Poland’s “enhanced isolation” system, in which people are contacted on a daily basis and asked to submit a photo of themselves where they are isolated.
Officials have been told to prepare to use facial recognition and GPS technology to ensure that people remain isolated when they arrive in the country. Pictured: Passengers at the Covid-19 test center at Heathrow Airport, London, on Saturday
The images are cross-referenced using GPS data and facial recognition software and are visited by the police within 20 minutes if they do not comply.
Officials discussed the ideas at a meeting on Thursday and it is understood that the technology would be limited to newcomers, not anyone who has been ordered to isolate themselves in the UK.
The current regimen announced Friday in the UK means arriving people will still have to self-isolate for 10 days, even if they have had a negative coronavirus test within 72 hours, or five if they have another negative result during that period.
The ban will be backed by stricter sporadic controls and will remain in effect until at least February 15, while ministers and scientists determine how to handle the threat posed by virus mutations.
Yesterday it was revealed that 11 Britons have had one of the variants that have emerged in Brazil, although it is not yet clear what degree of threat it represents.
Visitors from the UK will need to pay for the hotel stay themselves based on the plans under consideration. Pictured: Arrivals in PPE at London Heathrow Airport on Saturday
Travelers from South America, Portugal, some from Central America and South Africa are already banned from entering the country.
Earlier, Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps defended the timing of the South American border ban amid complaints that ministers have been ‘behind the curve’ responding to the threat of new variants of Covid.
The ban also covers the Central American state of Panama and Portugal, due to their strong travel ties with Brazil, and the former Portuguese colony of Cape Verde.
It applies to everyone who has been in the area in the last 10 days, although UK and Irish citizens are exempt, and it went into effect at 4am. M.
Two students landed at Manchester Airport in full PPE when they landed from their Dubai flight and headed to York University
Scientists analyzing the Brazilian variant believe that the mutations it shares with the new South African strain are associated with a rapid increase in cases in places where there have already been large outbreaks of the disease.
British and Irish citizens and others with residency rights are exempted from measures backed by the Scottish and Welsh governments, although they must isolate themselves for 10 days along with their homes upon return.
Shapps described the ban as a “precautionary” measure to ensure that the vaccination program being implemented in the UK is not affected by new variants of the virus.
When asked if the Brazilian strain was currently in the country, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today show: ‘Not that we know of, I think, at this stage.
“There have been no flights that I can see since last week from Brazil, for example.”
