Boris Johnson WILL Sign Off New Border Controls Within Hours

Boris Johnson WILL Sign Off New Border Controls Within Hours.

Boris Johnson will soon sign off on plans to toughen border controls by putting new arrivals into isolation. The Prime Minister also said tonight that he wanted ‘maximum possible protection against reinfection from abroad’ to prevent new coronavirus variants jeopardising the vaccination programme. British travellers arriving back from South Africa and Brazil will be the first forced to quarantine in airport hotels.

Officials have warned it will be ‘logistically challenging’ to put the system in place and it could take as long as three weeks to get it up and running. Concerns have been raised that there are only 10,000 hotel rooms close to London’s Heathrow airport.

Quarantine hotels

Ministers will consider whether to impose Australian-style restrictions, meaning all arrivals, including British nationals, would have to quarantine for 10 days at their own expense in government-supervised hotels. Johnson and the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, are said to favour a more targeted approach that would only require those travelling from high-risk countries to stay in quarantine hotels.

However, the chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has thrown his weight behind proposals – said to also be backed by the home secretary, Priti Patel, and health secretary, Matt Hancock – that ALL arrivals quarantine in hotels regardless of where they have travelled from.

A blanket ban on flights

Among a policy “menu” of choices presented to ministers will be the most severe option of a blanket ban on all flights into the country. It follows Israel deciding to halt all its passenger flights, in and out, for a week from Monday evening.

Targeted travel bans

Ministers also have the choice of sticking with the current strategy of targeted travel bans on countries where new risks are identified, such as the new variants in South Africa and Brazil. Last Thursday, Shapps announced Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo were being added to a growing list of countries from which arrivals are banned.

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