UK Home Secretary Priti Patel on Friday said that all the new arrivals must self-isolate for two weeks from June 8, with fines for anyone who breaches the measure designed to prevent a second wave of coronavirus from overseas.
At the Downing Street briefing, Patel said passengers will need to provide their contact and travel information so they can be traced if infections arise. They could also be contacted regularly during the whole quarantine and face random checks from public health authorities.
Rule breakers would face a 1,000 pounds ($1,217) fixed penalty notice in England and border force will be able to refuse entry to any non-British citizens who refuses to comply with these regulations, the Home Office said in a statement.
Those in quarantine will not be allowed to accept visitors, unless they are providing essential support, and should not go out to buy food or other essentials where they can rely on others, the Home Office further added.
Earlier this month, UK introduced a 14-day mandatory quarantine for international arrivals that sparked alarm among airports and airlines already suffering from the COVID-19 disease.
Johnson had said that he could begin to ease a nationwide coronavirus lockdown in the coimg weeks but warned he would do nothing that would risk a new surge of cases.
The Prime Minister in par, while speaking in parliament for the first time since he himself was hospitalised with coronavirus, said the government would review the data and he would set out the next steps.
The country is now the third-most affected in the world behind the United States and Italy on cumulative deaths, after changing its reporting to include community as well as hospital deaths.
The new move came as another 351 COVID-19 patients have died in Britain as of Thursday afternoon, bringing the total coronavirus-related death toll in the country to 36,393, according to the Department of Health and Social Care.
As of Friday morning, 254,195 people have tested positive for the disease in the country, marking a daily increase of 3,287, said the department.
In another development, China’s COVID-19 vaccine trial has shown some promising results as world is seeking solutions to the pandemic.
China’s COVID-19 vaccine trial, the first such vaccine to reach phase 1 clinical trial, has been found to be safe, well-tolerated, and able to generate an immune response against SARS-CoV-2 in humans, according to a study published online on Friday by the medical journal The Lancet.