Skift Take

As of Sunday the hotel booking system was still broken, so we're going to trust the border official who called the rollout "an absolute joke" rather than listen to the hapless Hancock.

Britain’s new COVID-19 hotel quarantine system for arrivals from 33 “red list” countries appears to be working smoothly a few hours after it was introduced, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.

The government has introduced a new demand that arrivals from the 33 countries, which include Brazil and South Africa, will have to pay to spend 10 days quarantined in a hotel room in a bid to stop new variants of the coronavirus from entering the country.

“As of 6.30, when I got my latest update, this is working smoothly, we’ve been working with the airports and with the border force to make sure everybody knows the process,” Hancock told Times Radio.

“It does appear to be going smoothly this morning.”

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by James Davey)

This article was from Reuters and was legally licensed through the Industry Dive publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to [email protected].

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Tags: coronavirus, england, health

Photo credit: Signs advising travelers of earlier self-quarantine rules upon arrival at London's Heathrow International Airport in October, 2020. Skift

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