UK coronavirus live: Spanish PM attacks ‘error’ of quarantine travel restrictions | Politics
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Five countries added to list of those exempt from UK quarantine rules
As expected (see 7.22am), five more countries have been added to the Foreign Office’s list of countries that are exempt from quarantine. They are: Estonia, Latvia, Slovenia, Slovakia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
The full list of countries that are exempt is here. These are the arrangements sometimes described as air corridors.
However the government said anyone who arrived in England from these countries before Tuesday would still need to self-isolate.
Photograph: Valery Sharifulin/TASS
Booking holiday abroad involves ‘degree of uncertainty’, says minister
Good morning. I’m Andrew Sparrow, taking over from Damien Gayle.
Simon Clarke, the local government minister, was doing the morning interview round on behalf of the government this morning. As we’ve already reported, he used his interviews to dismiss the Spanish PM’s criticism of the Spain quarantine policy. (See 8.09am.) But here are some of the other points he made.
- Clarke said anyone booking a holiday abroad this year would have to accept “a degree of uncertainty”. He explained:
The reality is people travelling abroad will have to accept that there is a degree of uncertainty.
As the situation changes on the ground, we have to reserve the right to take action to keep the British public safe.
- He said that, if the government had not re-imposed quarantine on arrivals from Spain, it would also have faced criticism. He said:
I think we’d have faced equally, frankly, strong criticism from you this morning had we done anything else.
If we’d failed to take these steps, we’d be accused of inaction in the face of a growing health crisis and therefore it is important to remember we’re doing this because the balance of medical opinion is it’s the right thing to do.
- He urged employers to take a “compassionate” approach towards workers who needed to quarantine on return from holiday. Asked about people who would be unable to return to work, she said:
We all feel deeply for everyone who’s been affected by this.
We very strongly encourage employers to take a sensible and compassionate approach to people who find themselves in this situation.
If people are in genuine crisis, then of course there is a safety net through the new employment support allowance or through universal credit and advances can be paid very quickly if you’re in immediate need.
We really do hope that employers will be supportive and put sensible steps in place to accommodate people who are affected by this.
Greggs has said sales will not recover to pre-pandemic levels for as long as social distancing rules are enforced, but the bakery chain added it was “encouraged” by its performance since reopening.
Sales at reopened shops reached 72% of last year’s levels in the week to 25 July, Greggs said on Tuesday, as it reported a £65.2m loss for the first half of 2020. The coronavirus pandemic forced the closure of all its 2,050 stores, sending sales down by 49% on a like-for-like basis.
The £65.2m loss compares with a £36.7m profit at the same point last year.
Greggs shops were closed from 23 March until it started reopening 800 stores on 18 June. Total sales in the 26 weeks to 27 June were £300.6m, compared with £546.3m in the previous year.
Updated
Unions have called for teachers and support staff to be allowed to wear face masks in schools in England in order to protect them and help limit the spread of coronavirus.
The government does not currently recommend the use of face coverings in schools, as it says staff and pupils are kept in consistent groups, meaning risk is limited, and misuse could increase the risk of transmission. There are also concerns that masks could affect communication in classes.
However, with face coverings now mandatory in enclosed public spaces across England, including inside shops and on public transport, unions say the current policy in schools is out of step with wider public health policy, and they want teachers and school staff to have the same protection as other workers.
With masks also compulsory for children over the age of 11 in enclosed public spaces, the NASUWT teaching union believes there is now a strong case for wearing them to be made compulsory for older children when they return to school in September.
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As many as 14 million Britons will skip trips abroad this year after the chaotic handling of the quarantine for Spain, in a development that could boost the UK economy by £3.7bn, the Daily Mirror reports.
Butlin’s told the red-top that it was doing a roaring trade since it reopened on Friday as more families shun holidays abroad; Haven said bookings at its 36 parks had soared by 96% year-on-year; caravan sites were also proving popular with bookings increasing by up to 140% in Devon; and camping website pitch.com said demand had doubled year-on-year.
VisitBritain, the trade body for the UK tourism industry, said that domestic holidays could give the UK economy a £3.7bn boost.
BBC News (UK)
(@BBCNews)Tuesday’s Mirror: “Holiday chaos: 14m Brits to stay at home” (via @AllieHBNews) #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/FQaDDF2Lb9
July 27, 2020
The Daily Telegraph reports this morning that the government is close to finalising a plan to cut quarantine periods from travellers coming into the UK to 10-days if they test negative for the virus.
In its splash it claims that ministers hope to announce a plan to test arrivals from high-risk countries eight days after they land, allowing them out of self-isolation two days later if they test negative for coronavirus.
BBC News (UK)
(@BBCNews)Tuesday’s Telegraph: “Quarantine to be cut to ten days” (via @AllieHBNews) #BBCPapers #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/JTp6z1EtGw
July 27, 2020
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, is apparently the mastermind behind the scheme. The paper reports:
Coronavirus takes five to seven days to incubate, meaning those who have the disease can be asymptomatic during that period. If people test negative eight days after they have landed, the chances of them having the virus are tiny, ministers now believe.
Under Mr Hancock’s plan, they will be told to remain in isolation for another two days as a fail-safe, as well as allowing time for their test results to come back, and if no symptoms arise they will be able to end quarantine. It means that someone returning from holiday on a Saturday would be able to return to work on Wednesday week, rather than having to lose a full two working weeks.
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Spanish PM attacks decision to quarantine travellers from the country
The decision to impose a mandatory 14-day quarantine on travellers entering the UK from Spain and to warn Britons against travelling to the country is an error based on incorrect epidemiological reasoning, the prime minister of Spain has said.
Speaking on Spanish television on Monday night, Pedro Sanchez said much of his country, a hotspot for UK tourists, had a lower infection rate than the UK. Last year, British tourists comprised over a fifth of foreign visitors to Spain, which relies heavily on tourism. He said:
The error, in my judgement, and hence the lack of alignment of the United Kingdom’s response, is based on considering the cumulative incidence of (the virus in) the entire country.
The rebound in coronavirus cases is focused in two regions, Catalonia and Aragon, he said, adding: “In most of Spain, the incidence (of the disease) is very much inferior to even the numbers registered in the United Kingdom.”
He added, according to the BBC:
We are talking with British authorities to try to get them to reconsider a measure that, in our opinion, is not well adjusted if we consider epidemiological criteria of Spain, particularly in some tourist destinations in our country.
The Socialist prime minister said the British government had given Spain advance warning of the quarantine move. Madrid is trying to persuade Boris Johnson’s government to change its mind, Sanchez said, adding that the two governments were “friends”.
Madrid had on Monday been focusing its efforts on getting the Balearic and Canary Islands, which have a low coronavirus rate, off London’s quarantine list. Instead the UK added them to its guidance advising against all non-essential travel.
Sanchez said that the two archipelagos, as well as the regions of Valencia and Andalusia, had a lower infection rate than Britain.
“It would be safer to be in those destinations than in the United Kingdom,” he said.
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