Don't book summer holidays, says minister, with quarantine hotels set to be announced for Britons

Britons should not book summer holidays abroad, the vaccines minister has said as the Government prepared to force UK arrivals from "high risk" countries with new Covid variants to quarantine in hotels.

Nadhim Zahawi said it was "far too early" to even speculate about summer holidays, with 37,000 people being treated in hospital for Covid-19.

Asked whether his advice to people considering booking a summer holiday now was not to do so now, Mr Zahawi said: "Absolutely. At the moment we have reached base camp, if I can describe it as that, with the vaccine deployment programme, over six and a half million people now with the first dose... a long way to go."

The Cabinet's Covid operations (Covid-O) committee will meet later on Tuesday to finalise plans for Australian-style hotel quarantine that will cost travellers up to £1,500 for 10 days self-isolating with meals served in their rooms and supervised by private security guards.

Ministers are expected to agree to restrict the requirement for quarantine hotels to Britons returning from the 30 "high risk" countries currently covered by a travel ban for foreigners as part of the Government's strategy to prevent new Covid variants from abroad taking root in the UK.

These include South America, Portugal and Cape Verde, following the discovery of two new Covid variants in Brazil, as well as South Africa and neighbouring countries, where a third variant emerged. Non-UK residents from these countries are barred from entering the UK.

The Covid-O committee will also consider whether test and release, where travellers can leave quarantine if they have a negative Covid result on the fifth day, should continue for both those held in quarantine hotels and all other arrivals from lower risk countries, as currently happens.

Also on the agenda is a proposal for all arrivals from any country to be required to stay in quarantine hotels.

Although this is said to have been pushed by ministers including Matt Hancock, the Health Secretary, and Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, it is now thought likely that it will be held in reserve, as will the option to impose a blanket closure of UK borders.

There are fears among travel chiefs that a blanket imposition of an Australian-style quarantine hotel policy on all arrivals would see travel and holidays effectively killed off until 2022.

Other measures to be considered including mandatory GPS tagging for all travellers required to quarantine in the UK are also thought unlikely to be rolled out immediately despite support from the former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

It is expected that there will be exemptions for freight flights and hauliers as well as specialists needed to maintain the UK’s critical infrastructure such as communications, security and energy, and potentially elite sportsmen including professional footballers.

Hotel chains including Best Western, Accor and Intercontinental Hotels owner IHG said they would make rooms available for passengers to quarantine as needed.

Rob Paterson, the chief executive of Best Western in the UK, said it "stood ready" to help and already had in place protocols each person would be treated as Covid-positive. Meals will be supplied to the doors of rooms three times a day, while travellers will be asked to leave their linen and towels out for cleaning each day. It would be replaced for them to make their own beds.

"There are hundreds of rooms across the UK with many empty beds. We would be ready to support the Government on that front," said Mr Paterson. "It's a source of income, but it is at the same time a big blow for tourism in the country."

The measures come on top of the requirement for all travellers entering the UK to have a negative Covid test within 72 hours of departure and the scrapping of the 63 travel corridors.

Mr Zahawi said: "There will be an announcement on this issue [quarantine hotels] later on today, so I can only say to you that it is the right thing to do, because I am the vaccines minister, that as we vaccinate more of the adult population, if there are new variants like the South African or the Brazilian variants, we need to be very careful.

"We acted on those very quickly and of course dealt with travel from those countries, and from Portugal and elsewhere, rapidly so it is important we continue to review our border policy and an announcement will be made when a decision has been taken.

"And of course the industry itself will be engaged with heavily, including Matt Hancock engaging with the industry to explain the decision making at health, as well as of course the business department with the Business Secretary."