Government slammed for ‘delays beyond comprehension’ over Covid quarantine hotels
Video report by ITV News Correspondent Rupert Evelyn
The government has been slammed for "delays beyond comprehension" over its mandatory hotel quarantine scheme after a start date for the new rules was set - nearly three weeks after the policy was announced.
On Thursday, ITV News learnt that from February 15 passengers arriving into the UK from "red list" countries must quarantine in government-approved accommodation, like hotels, for 10 days.
But ministers have been accused of being too slow to enforce the policy - which had been introduced to limit the spread of Covid variants from overseas.
Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain, Foreign Office Minister James Cleverly defended the speed of the government's action.
"What you have got to remember is that this is part of a package of measures. It is not the only thing that we are doing to protect ourselves at borders," he said.
The minister said other measures - including a negative test, existing quarantine measures, and travel bans - were already in place to protect against new variants entering the country.
"The hotel quarantine measure is adding to an existing list of measures that we have out in place to protect ourselves at the borders."
There have been reports that hotels have been given until 5pm on Friday to say they are interested in taking part in the scheme. Mr Cleverly said the government had given hotels indication of this scheme days ago:
Annaliese Dodds, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, told ITV News on Friday she was concerned the hotel quarantine was not a blanket policy for arrivals from all countries.
She said: "We are concerned that the government's approach to hotel quarantine is just focused on a subset of countries. We think right now, when we're really in a dangerous period with new variants being produced all around the world, that we do actually need to be protecting ourselves with a more comprehensive system where we have hotel quarantine applied to all entrants.
"We appreciate that's a logistical challenge, but the UK government has had a very long time to get ready for this. We've had 50 days since the South African variant was first discovered within the UK."
She added: "But the important thing now isn't crying over spilt milk, it's actually the government getting a grip and delivering this system as quickly as possible."
The government originally announced on January 27 it would be tightening the rules following the emergence of mutant new strains of the virus in South Africa and Brazil.
Labour said it was “beyond comprehension” that it was taking so long to get the scheme up and running.
Shadow home secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the government was again doing “too little, too late”.
“It is beyond comprehension that these measures won’t even start until February 15,” he said.
“We are in a race against time to protect our borders against new Covid strains. Yet hotel quarantine will come in to force more than 50 days after the South African strain was discovered.
“Even when these measures eventually begin, they will not go anywhere near far enough to be effective in preventing further variants.”
ITV News Correspondent Rupert Evelyn explains how flying is now an unnerving experience and the anxieties passengers feel while breathing on a flight
The Department for Health and Social Care said it was working “at pace” to ensure designated quarantine hotels would be ready for British nationals returning from high-risk countries on the UK travel ban list from the middle of the month.
Officials said a commercial specification was issued on Thursday evening to hotels near air and sea ports asking for proposals on how they can support the delivery of quarantine facilities ahead of formal contracts being awarded.
ITV News has seen leaked official documents that suggest officials are seeking to reserve 28,000 hotel rooms over the course of the scheme.
The papers suggests officials estimate 1,425 passengers will need to be accommodated each day, mostly near Heathrow.
The announcement of a start date follows days of apparent confusion within Whitehall over how the scheme would be implemented.
When it first was announced on January 27, Home Secretary Priti Patel said further details would be set out later that week.
Then, at a No 10 press conference on Wednesday, Boris Johnson said Health Secretary Matt Hancock would be making an announcement the next day, only to be corrected by Downing Street which said no statement was planned.
A DHSC spokesman said they had been in discussions with representatives of the aviation, maritime, hotel and hospitality industries, as well as counterparts in Australia and New Zealand which already have similar schemes.
“We are now working at pace to secure the facilities we need to roll out managed quarantine for British nationals returning home from the most high risk countries,” the spokesman said.
“In the face of new variants, it is important that the government continues to take the necessary steps to protect people and save lives.”
Meanwhile NHS leaders have warned the service remains at “full stretch”, despite a declaration by the chief medical officer for England Professor Chris Whitty that the current wave of the pandemic was “past its peak”.
Chris Hopson, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, said numbers in intensive care were only coming down “very slowly” while staff were “deeply exhausted” after working for weeks at “fever pitch”.
Earlier, Mr Hopson called for a “cautious, evidence-based” approach to any relaxation of lockdown restrictions in England, saying the social-distancing rules had been eased too early last year.
He said there were still 26,000 Covid-19 patients in hospital, 40% more than the peak last April, while the NHS was running at 170% of last year’s intensive care unit (ICU) capacity.
In a series of tweets, he said a cold snap was forecast next week which would increase the pressure on services.
“So, if we want to use mountain analogies (peaks etc) the NHS has barely crested the peak and it’s still at an extremely high altitude under huge pressure,” he said.
“The descent down the mountain has only just started and we don’t know how steep the down slope will be.”
His comments were echoed by former health secretary Jeremy Hunt, who said ministers should listen “very carefully” to the scientific advice.
“I think we have to recognise that the game has changed massively over Christmas with these new variants, and that we mustn’t make the mistake that we made last year of thinking that we’re not going to have another resurgence of the virus,” he told the Guardian.
The warnings came as Mr Johnson is coming under intense pressure from some Tory MPs to bring forward the lifting of lockdown restrictions as cases fall and the vaccine rollout continues.
Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, said the Government was in danger of falling out of step with public opinion if it delays the opening of schools in England to March 8 as planned.
“It’s quite possible that the current very steep decline in infections will continue,” he told Times Radio.
“And if it continues at that rate over the coming weeks, I think the danger is the government could find itself behind the curve where the public are saying ‘Well come on, not a lot of people are getting ill and there are very serious consequences for my children and for our lives’.”