Welsh father 'seething' as family must isolate while people in England avoid quarantine
A holidaymaker from Cardiff has said he is "seething" that he and his family will have to quarantine upon their return from Greece and is pondering booking a hotel in England for two weeks to avoid it.
While Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced there would be no changes to the countries on the quarantine exemption list in England on Thursday, the Welsh Government announced those returning to Wales from Portugal, Gibraltar and a number or Greek islands would need to isolate from 4m on Friday.
Jonathan, is staying with his wife and two children on the island of Crete, which was included on the list .
He was left angry by the decision of Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething to diverge from the UK's list.
Jonathan told the PA news agency: "It's the lack of consistent messaging and management across the whole UK Government I'm really angry about now - and the fact they've announced it at five o'clock UK time, so 7pm they've said 'you've got until 4am tomorrow to get home'.
"I mean, what, am I supposed to charter a private jet to try and get me and my family home?"
Jonathan and his family are scheduled to fly back to London Gatwick on Tuesday with Tui.
He said: "I'm almost at the point where I'm thinking I'm just going to book a Premier Inn or something in Bristol - if it costs me five or six hundred pounds I don't really care, I can afford it, I'll do it - and stay there and I'll just live my life as normal.
"Because if there's 196 people on that flight from England they can just go and live their life as normal, but because I live in Wales, Vaughan Gething has said 'screw you, I'm going to make you sit in your house for 14 days'. It's a joke, an absolute joke."
Jonathan believes the Government is being heavy-handed in its approach to the virus.
"I'm more likely to die and kill my whole family in a car crash on the way home from Gatwick Airport than I am of dying from Covid, let alone infect a load of other people," he said.
"It is beyond sense that they are taking this approach and I am so angry at the Welsh Government and the whole Government at how they're handling this pandemic because the whole country is being fed a load of rubbish in how this is being done, and I'm fed up with it."
In a statement on Thursday, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said the action is being taken as a result of a "large number of cases of coronavirus have been imported into Wales from tourists returning from the Greek islands, in particular."
Mr Gething told the BBC's Today programme there had been "very clear advice" from the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), as well as a number of cases of coronavirus being imported into Wales.
In the last week, there have been more than 20 cases confirmed in passengers on one flight from Zante to Cardiff.
On Tuesday, the Welsh Government advised passengers returning from Zakynthos to quarantine for two weeks and offered Covid-19 tests within 48 hours of their return, as well as eight days later.
"That was because in the week before we had over 30 cases from four different flights, two of which had landed in England," Mr Gething said.
"On that flight which landed in Cardiff on Tuesday, there are over 20 direct cases - that's more than 10% of that flight.
"Seeing a rising tide of infections coming in from that list of islands, having that direct experience in Wales and very clear advice about the higher risk to UK public health from the JBC, I did not feel that there was any course of action other than taking some form of action.
"It's not for me to explain why others haven't done that, but I'm very clear that we're following that advice and keeping Wales safe."
The UK Government has decided not to impose restrictions on people entering England from Greece and Portugal.
Scotland and Wales are imposing 14 days of isolation on arrivals from Portugal.
Scotland is also including Greece on its quarantine list, though in Wales the restriction only applies to the six named Greek islands.
Mr Shapps said other factors, including the extent of testing and whether outbreaks are "contained", are taken into account when considering changes to the list.
There were 13.8 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Greece in the seven days to Wednesday, down from 14.9 a week earlier.
A seven-day rate of 20 is the threshold above which the UK Government will currently consider triggering quarantine conditions.