LONDON (UK) – Transport Minister Grant Shapps said on Friday that travellers to Britain faced confusion over the quarantine rules as Wales and Scotland imposed quarantine on those arriving from Portugal while England and Northern Ireland held back from such curbs.
Wales has decided to quarantine those returning from Portugal, Gibraltar, French Polynesia and the Greek islands of Mykonos, Zakynthos, Lesbos, Paros, Antiparos and Crete as of Friday.
Scotland too has decided to quarantine returnees from Portugal and French Polynesia from 0300 GMT on Saturday.
“I do realise it creates confusion for people not to have a single rule (across the UK) but we do have this devolved approach throughout the United Kingdom and I can only be responsible for the English part of that,” Shapps said.
When asked about testing at airports, he said, “A day zero test as you come home is unlikely to find the vast majority of people who travelled with coronavirus,” adding that the government’s health experts thought such a test would pick up just 7% of positive cases.
“So you probably have to have some kind of quarantine period, perhaps seven or eight days, maybe a test then – those are the things we are working through,” Shapps said.