Travellers to the UK from Croatia, Austria and Trinidad and Tobago will have to quarantine for 14 days on their return to the country, it has been announced.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced the measures would come into effect from Saturday at 4am.
Meanwhile, passengers arriving in the UK from Portugal will no longer have to self-isolate after it was added to the travel corridor list.
Mr Shapps tweeted: “Data shows we need to remove Croatia, Austria and Trinidad & Tobago from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors to keep infection rates DOWN.
“If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.
“Data also shows we can now add Portugal to those countries INCLUDED in Travel Corridors.
“As with all air bridge countries, please be aware that things can change quickly.
“Only travel if you are content to unexpectedly 14-day quarantine if required (I speak from experience!)”
Steve Davies, from Yeovil, Somerset, is on holiday in Drasnice, Croatia, and said quarantining when he returns will cost him up to £1,200 in unpaid wages.
“Which is more than the cost of the holiday,” the 50-year-old, who works as a production supervisor for Leonardo helicopters, told PA.
“The announcements are a shambles with little warning to return … why can’t the Government work two weeks ahead on these announcements?
“I refuse to be panicked and I will not return early: it’s safer here than where I am in the UK.”
Mr Davies is travelling on to Poland, which is exempt from the quarantine rules, on August 25 and then Britain on August 30.
According to Government rules, this means he would need to isolate for nine days on his return, taking him to 14 since leaving Croatia.
Officials said the decision to add the three countries to the quarantine list was based on a “significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases”.
The weekly incidence per 100,000 people for Croatia has increased from 10.4 on August 12 to 27.4 on August 19 – a 164% increase.
In Trinidad and Tobago cases have increased over the past four weeks, with a sharp 232% spike in the number of cases per 100,000 people between August 12 and 19.
In Austria, the weekly number of cases per 100,000 of the population has increased from 10.5 on August 13 to 20.3 on August 20, a 93% increase.
Amid rumours Greece would be added to the quarantine list, Jess, from Milton Keynes, who did not reveal her second name, rescheduled a £6,500 family holiday for an extra cost of £1,000.
The holiday, for her and her husband’s 40th birthdays, had already been rescheduled from the start of the school Summer holidays to the end, but it has now been pushed back to next year.
Jess made the latest change after seeing a spike in Covid cases in Greece and reading four articles on the rumoured quarantine changes.
“If the government could stop the fake news published (about rule changes) that scares readers it would help,” she told PA.
“Frustratingly we booked this holiday as a special treat as (me and my husband) are both 40 this year.
“Too late for us we are off camping to Cornwall.”
-- to www.walesonline.co.uk
