Covid: All international arrivals into Scotland face mandatory hotel quarantine
All international arrivals into Scotland will have to pay £1,750 for a ten-day hotel quarantine stay from Monday.
The move goes further than the announcement made by Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who said earlier that international arrivals into England who had been in 33 “red list” countries would face hotel quarantine.
Like in England, arrivals will be tested for coronavirus on day two and day eight of quarantine. Travellers will then face a further 10 days in isolation if they test positive.
Six hotels have been booked near Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports with a total of 1,300 rooms.
Scottish Transport Secretary Michael Matheson said stronger restrictions on travel were needed to stop new variants entering Scotland.
Mr Matheson said: “We need a comprehensive approach to restricting international travel.”
He added it was “very hard to say with confidence where the high-risk countries are”, saying this was why the Scottish Government wanted a “comprehensive approach to managed isolation”.
And he stated: “From Monday we will require all international travellers arriving directly on flights into Scotland to enter managed isolation.”
But Mr Matheson said: “We know that is not sufficient and we have therefore gone further.”
The Scottish transport secretary acknowledged the tough new measures will likely see a further reduction in the number of people flying into Scotland.
He revealed in the last week of January, around 1,600 people arrived in Scotland from overseas - but that this fell to 730 in the first week of February.
Exemptions for overseas travel have also been tightened in Scotland to only elite athletes, as well as athletes and coaches preparing for the Olympics and Paralympics.
Non-essential travel in Scotland is already illegal and failure to comply with the rules will be deemed a criminal offence, Mr Matheson said.