Fears grow that France will be added to the UK quarantine list in the coming days, leaving thousands of Britons in isolation on their return.
Ministers are believed to be planning new measures for a swathe of countries that also includes Switzerland, Poland and the Netherlands amid a surge in European coronavirus cases.
They could join Spain and its islands on the list of countries where returnees will face 14 days of self-isolation, possibly putting their jobs at risk.
This happened when Boris Johnson warned that ministers would hesitate to impose a quarantine formula for travellers from other countries to the UK if necessary.
On a stopover at a school in Upminster, Essex, he said: “I don’t need to tell others about their individual holidays, their individual decisions, they deserve to take a look obviously at the travel councils of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
But what I am going to say, and I hope that other people will expect us to do so, in the context of a global pandemic, we will have to continue to examine the knowledge of all the countries to which the British must travel.
“When it comes to imposing restrictions or imposing a quarantine system, we will not hesitate to do so.
Boris Johnson warned that ministers will ‘not hesitate’ to impose a quarantine system for travellers from other countries to the UK if needed
Increasing cases: Spain has experienced a sharp increase in coronavirus cases in recent weeks, as shown in this chart, while France, Germany and Italy have also noticed an increase in new infections.
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Edited through Associated Newspapers Ltd
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