Welsh government mulls mandatory quarantine for visitors from UK’s Covid-19 ‘hotspot areas’
Wales’ government may implement a self-isolation regime for people arriving from other parts of the UK that have seen a resurgence in coronavirus infections, Health Minister Vaughan Gething has announced.
Gething said during a media conference that the government in Cardiff was “actively considering” quarantine regulations for visitors from “hotspot areas” within the United Kingdom. He argued that the same reasoning used in requiring self-isolation for travelers from abroad should apply to UK citizens.
“We have quarantine regulations for international travel. So for some of the hotspot areas in the north of England, the north east and north west, and the West Midlands, if they were other countries or territories, we would have quarantine regulations for them to return to the UK,” he said, adding that he had discussed the issue with First Minister Mark Drakeford.
The health minister stressed, however, that any new measures imposed to stop the spread of the virus should be “proportionate” and “deal with the reality of the threat that we face.”
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has so far resisted calls to mandate quarantines for people who visit areas of the country with a spike in Covid-19 cases.
On Monday, Public Health Wales reported 596 new cases but did not register any new deaths. In total, Wales has seen 26,447 cases, resulting in 1,630 Covid-related fatalities.
The UK government has introduced a number of strict measures aimed at containing a second wave of the illness, but it has stopped short of reimposing a nationwide lockdown.
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