Pressure is on UK Government to Bring Back Quarantine for Greece

GREECE holiday chaos looms as pressure grows on the UK government to bring back quarantine for arrivals from the country.

Boris Johnson is facing increasing pressure to reconsider the quarantine rules for Greece after Scotland and Wales introduced new measures over concerns about rising coronavirus cases and the number of holidaymakers returning with the virus. The Scottish government announced on Tuesday evening that travellers from Greece would have to self-isolate for 14 days from Thursday – Wales is also now asking arrivals from the island of Zante to begin a 14-day quarantine period.

The Department for Transport said no change to its rules for England had yet been made, but Wales’ health minister Vaughan Gething said he would be pressing the UK government for an urgent meeting to consider the serious potential risk from Greece. The moves came as holidaymakers scrambled to return from Portugal amid growing concerns that restrictions could be soon reimposed on arrivals from the country.

England lifted restrictions for Greece in July when international exemptions were first permitted. There were 14.0 coronavirus cases per 100,000 people in Greece in the seven days to August 31, down from 14.9 a week earlier. If the seven-day rate of 20 increases then this is the threshold above which the UK government would consider triggering quarantine conditions.

Greece reacts

Greece’s tourism minister Harry Theoharis said the country has “a much lower number of infections compared to most other countries in Europe, we’re actually in the right direction. We’re going down in terms of the average numbers.”