Hotel quarantine: British rage over standard Australian rule

UK residents are aghast at a plan to introduce an Australia-style measure in an effort to contain its out-of-control COVID-19 outbreak.

UK residents are aghast at a plan to introduce an Australia-style measure in an effort to contain its out-of-control COVID-19 outbreak.

Ministers are set to introduce a rule that is already standard practice in countries including Australia and New Zealand, requiring incoming travellers to isolate in hotels after their arrival.

Travellers may have to pay 1500 pounds ($2660) to quarantine for ten days at one of the designated hotels, where meals will be served in rooms and isolation supervised by private security guards.

The UK has one of the world’s highest death rates and is Europe’s first country to reach the grim milestone of 100,000 COVID-19 fatalities, propelled by a highly contagious mutant strain. It has now reported almost 3.7 million cases.

Yet the plan was met with dismay from some quarters.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson carries doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine for distribution at Barnet Football Club in north London. Picture: Getty Images

RELATED: Police break up large boat party in Sydney

Airport Operators Association chief executive Karen Dee and Airlines UK chief executive Tim Alderslade said in a joint statement that the UK now had among the “highest levels of restrictions in the world”.

“The impact of further measures would be catastrophic,” the statement read. “They will impact vital freight and PPE supplies and jeopardise tens of thousands of jobs and the many businesses that depend on aviation.”

The UK only abandoned its “travel corridors” with countries with lower case numbers earlier this month, and now asks arrivals to show negative COVID-19 tests and then self-isolate at home.

Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi said a decision on hotel quarantine would be announced today, prompting feverish debate over the plan’s workability.

Hotel quarantine is standard in countries such as Australia and New Zealand — but many Brits are horrified at the plan. Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images

RELATED: ‘Isolate immediately’: Worrying virus find

“Where is the evidence for Quarantine Hotels working in countries where the numbers of cases already in the community is as high as ours?” tweeted TV star Kirstie Allsopp. “We are sleep walking into bankruptcy while chanting “It worked in Australia, It worked in Australia” like a bunch of demented lemmings.”

There are currently more than 37,000 people in UK hospitals and almost 6.6 million people have been given a first vaccine dose as the government races to deliver the jab to priority groups.

Allsopp said it took 10 months to remove COVID from the community in Australia and left many stranded abroad, adding that the UK was a service economy with a diverse population. “We cannot survive if we cut ourselves off.”

But some social media users said Australia was also a highly connected country and simply “got on top of this early” while the UK failed on border control, track and trace and adequate lockdowns.

‘ECONOMIC AND HUMAN CRISIS IN OZ’

Sarah Nickson, from UK think tank Institute for Government, said capacity would be a “big constraint”. Around 10,000 passengers arrive at London’s Heathrow Airport every day and there are only around the same number of hotel rooms in the vicinity.

“It’s been really difficult for Australia in economic terms and in human cost terms,” she told the BBC, adding that the UK sees around 145 million arrivals per year while Australia only sees 21 million.

“The challenges that Australia faced, I think the UK will face those on an even larger scale.”

Ms Nickson said that the use of outsourced security firms could also lead to teething problems similar to those seen in Melbourne.

MP Huw Merriman, chair of the Transport Select Committee, told BBC Radio 4: “We can cause absolute chaos if we put this across the entire globe.

It worked when implemented from the start, it still took 10 months mind you and those Australians stranded abroad unable to afford to return home have plenty to complain about. https://t.co/LzYl3XPT64

— Kirstie Allsopp (@KirstieMAllsopp) January 25, 2021

It worked in countries which had very low levels of Covid to start with. To do it now is the ultimate example of after the horse has bolted. It took 10 months to remove Covid from the community in Australia, given our rate per 100,000 now it would probably take us 10 years! https://t.co/9yCJ9noBoT

— Kirstie Allsopp (@KirstieMAllsopp) January 25, 2021

Many people I follow on Twitter are passionate remainers who loath Boris, yet they are lapping up a xenophobic, populist policy which effectively closes our borders, hugely isolating the UK, without asking for any evidence that it will save lives.

— Kirstie Allsopp (@KirstieMAllsopp) January 26, 2021

For many, ten days spent under lock and key in a quarantine hotel room would be deeply traumatic – never mind civil liberties, what about human rights?
Britain can and MUST do better @grantshapps @michaelgove @RishiSunak https://t.co/3ODurumo7z

— Zoe Strimpel (@realzoestrimpel) January 25, 2021

Financial Times’ journalist Sebastian Payne said that an Australia-style cap on arrivals could be an option to deal with the logistics issues.

“Sydney allows just 1,505 arrivals a week, other cities are in the hundreds,” he said.

But he said this had “created an economic and human crisis in Oz. Flight prices have soared.”

Another issue is that hotel quarantine rules are not expected to apply to freight truck drivers, with around 10,000 trucks arriving in and leaving the UK daily by ferry and train.

Some said hotel quarantine could be traumatic, while others claimed it was a human rights violation. Picture: Hollie Adams / AFP

‘DEEPLY TRAUMATIC’

Telegraph UK columnist Zoe Strimpel tweeted: “For many, ten days spent under lock and key in a quarantine hotel room would be deeply traumatic.”

Law firm PGMBM claimed hotel quarantine could violate basic human rights under the European Convention of Human Rights, the Telegraph reported.

“These proposals of a blanket imposition of hotel quarantine, at travellers’ own expense, raise fundamental questions about the denial of liberty of those subjected to it,” said Tom Goodhead, Barrister and Managing Partner of PGMBM.

“Article 5 of the ECHR specifically states that no one shall be unduly deprived of their liberty. Whilst there is a provision that may allow the denial of that liberty to prevent the spread of infectious disease, under these proposals inbound travellers would be detained even if they did not test positive for COVID-19.”

The UK is heading for mandatory hotel quarantine - likely to be signed off for all arrivals to the UK by ministers tomorrow.

But it’s an incredible complex policy that is far from cost free. Much will depend on how tough the government decides to act. Some thoughts:

— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) January 25, 2021

308 days after New Zealand...

311 days after Australia...

360 days after the first UK Covid case...

The UK finally closes its borders immediately... in about 3 weeks time.https://t.co/MM0az080Op

— David Schneider (@davidschneider) January 25, 2021

The point is people who compare how NZ and Aus tackled covid to how European countries have dont realise that these things are currently intrinsic over here whilst they dont have those issues precisely because of their location and distances between other countries

— Martin (@Martin95684074) January 26, 2021

Rupert Longsdon, founder of The Oxford Ski Company, told the paper the rule would be “a final nail in the coffin for the ski industry this winter and an absolute catastrophe for the travel sector as a whole,” adding: “The damage this could cause is immeasurable.”

Others said the move to introduce hotel quarantine in the UK was long overdue.

“308 days after New Zealand... 311 days after Australia... 360 days after the first UK Covid case... The UK finally closes its borders immediately... in about 3 weeks time,” tweeted actor David Schneider.