Covid-19: UK imposes new border restrictions
Heathrow Airport in London, in the midst of the coronavirus epidemic.
DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
Even if new contaminations are now down sharply thanks to containment, the United Kingdom is giving a new turn of the screw by strengthening the measures at its borders, for its nationals as for foreign travelers, with the objective of protecting itself from variants Brazilian and South African.
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With our correspondent in London,
Claire Digiacomi
Already under general containment,
the UK is
now tightening its border restrictions.
New daily cases have been dropping steadily since the end of January, but the country does not want to spoil these efforts, and especially not those made in the vaccination campaign.
New rules therefore come into force on February 15.
The first: everyone arriving on British soil will have to undergo two PCR tests, during a mandatory ten-day isolation period.
Quarantine under surveillance
Another measure, more spectacular this one: quarantine in a hotel, under surveillance, imposed on British or Irish residents arriving from thirty countries deemed at risk.
The price of the stay amounts to nearly 2000 euros at the expense of the traveler.
The objective of these new rules is to limit the arrival in the United Kingdom of Brazilian and especially South African variants, likely to resist vaccines.
Heavy penalties are planned for offenders: more than a thousand euros fine for a missing test, and even up to ten years in prison for those who try to hide that they come from a country at risk.
► See also: Covid-19: the United Kingdom reaches its target of 15 million vaccinated
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