Seven-day quarantine to cut British isolation period in half gives hope to travellers

Health minister Matt Hancock insists the plans are not motivated by desire to increase compliance with self-isolation measures

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  Commuters at Waterloo station in London. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson appealed for resolve and a “spirit of togetherness” through the winter as he unveiled new restrictions. AP Photo

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  People wearing protective face masks make their way through Waterloo station during the morning rush hour on Wednesday morning. Reuters

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  British Airways will retire its Boeing 747 fleet immediately due to a drop in demand from the coronavirus pandemic. Courtesy British Airways

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  The UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak's 'Eat Out to Help Out' scheme has been successful. EPA

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  Stay-at-home orders wiped out 20 per cent of the British economy in the first half of 2020. AFP

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  Empty shelves from a Sainsbury's supermarket in London, UK, as shoppers in the British capital stockpile goods in advance of strict lockdown measures to fight coronavirus. Emma Sky for The National

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  Cars queue for Covid-19 drive-in testing centre in Bolton, England. Fears about rising infection rates among younger people across the UK has forced the government into tighter lockdown restrictions. Getty

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Britain is mulling plans to halve the quarantine time that people have to take to seven days when a household member contracts Covid-19, giving hope to international travellers that they may be able to get out and about sooner after arriving in the country.

Health minister Matt Hancock on Monday insisted that cutting the self-isolation period was not related to a desire to increase compliance and said he was consulting with his opposite number in France, where the quarantine period has been reduced to a week.

"It isn't about the compliance issue. It's about the overall clinical judgment of what time is required for isolation," Mr Hancock told Sky News.

"Obviously I'd rather have isolation as short as is reasonably possible because of the impact it has on people's lives, but it must be safe.

"We'll be listening very strongly to what the clinicians say and be guided by the science as we have been in all decisions in this pandemic," he added.

Under the plans, first reported by the Sunday Times, the self-isolation period would last a maximum of 10 days and could be put in place within two weeks.

The decision could also have an impact on international travellers, who currently have to self-isolate for two weeks upon arrival in the UK, unless they are coming from an exempt country.

A senior government minister earlier said no decision had yet been taken on cutting the quarantine time and denied reports that top business figures landing in the UK could be exempt from quarantine rules as part of a plan to kick-start the country’s ailing financial districts.

“There’s no decision,” said Northern Ireland secretary Brandon Lewis when asked if self-isolation periods could be cut.

“Teams are looking at this as we’re learning more about the virus, as we’re learning more about how we can manage and live within the virus. So we’re always assessing these things. But any final decision will be led by the science and we’re not in a position to make a decision on that just yet,” he told the BBC.Research published by Kings College London in September found that just 10.9 per cent of people had self-isolated for the full 14 days when alerted by a National Health Service tracing app that they had been in close contact with a confirmed Covid-19 case.

Mr Lewis said slashing the quarantine time would be based on whether the incubation period of Covid-19 allowed it.

“We’ll be looking at whether we can assess that incubation period of the virus, how people are reacting, as we know, if they’ve got the virus and making sure that people understand what the guidance is so they are isolating for the right period of time to protect those in the community around them,” he said.

“Now, we’ve always assessed that to be around 14 days – that’s 10 days if you’ve got the virus, but 14 days if you live with somebody or been in close contact with somebody with the virus. And it’s just whether the science is about to allow us to narrow that a bit. But we’ve haven’t made any decisions on that yet.”

When asked about reports that top City figures, company leaders and hedge fund managers could be exempt from quarantining, the Cabinet Office directed The National to Mr Lewis's denial to Sky News.

“Any changes that are made will apply to everybody. Obviously there are things we have done through the virus like getting testing out to frontline NHS workers first which were scientifically-led,” he said.

“But when we look at things like that, if there are any changes of that type, they will apply to everybody.”

Authorities in the UK are likely to tighten restrictions on more areas of the country this week, amid mixed signs about whether recent measures have stemmed the steep rise in coronavirus infections.

Britain has suffered Europe’s deadliest coronavirus outbreak, with almost 45,000 confirmed deaths.