Hotel quarantine may be increased to £2,250 to stop people doing unnecessary travel to red list country India

By A Staff Reporter

LONDON July 22: Travellers returning from red list destinations, which includes India, face having to pay an extra £500 to pay for their quarantine hotel stay. Under plans reportedly being considered, the price could increase to more than £2,250 in a bid to stop people making ‘unnecessary trips’ to high-risk countries, The Telegraph reported.

Ministers are said to be frustrated that the taxpayer is subsidising the high cost of keeping passengers in the designated hotels for 10 days. Currently, travellers pay £1,750 per person for the stay which includes two PCR Covid tests, transport from the airport to the hotel, and all their meals.

Red list countries are those the UK government says present the highest Covid risk, and should not be visited “except in the most extreme of circumstances”. Dozens of countries are on the red list, including India, Pakistan, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa. If you have been in one in the last 10 days, you can only enter the UK if you are a UK or Irish national, or UK resident.

The rules for those returning from a red-list country regardless of your vaccination status are as below:

Take a Covid-19 test before departure and have proof of a negative result

Complete a passenger locator form

Self-isolate for 10 days in a government-approved quarantine hotel, which you must book and pay for in advance

Rates are:

10 days (11-nights) for one adult – £1,750
Additional adult (or child over 11) – £650
Children aged five to 11 – £325

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps insisted people ‘should not’ be travelling to red list destinations and the scheme is there only for the ‘most extreme of circumstances’. He highlighted yesterday that the Government does not make a profit from the scheme – suggesting measures may have to be taken to curb the numbers of passengers using it.

The destination list is updated every three weeks, with the next review expected on August 4.

Mr Shapps told the Commons: ‘The only people who should be coming back to government quarantine are British or Irish citizens, or people with permanent rights of residence. And there should be a limit to the number of people who are still abroad and wishing to return. I sometimes come across cases where people are still using the red list as if it is a case of “It’s ok, I can come back and hotel quarantine”. “That should not be the case.”