Government imposes quarantine on travellers from Luxembourg
The government has imposed a 14-day quarantine on people returning from Luxembourg after an increase in the number of coronavirus cases in the country.
In a statement this evening, ministers said that from midnight tonight those arriving from the country would have to self-isolate for 14 days.
It said that there had been “a consistent increase in Covid-19 cases per 100,000 of the population in Luxembourg since the end of June, with over a tenfold increase in total cases over this time period”.
At the same time, The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has also updated its travel advice for Luxembourg to advise against all but essential travel to the country.
Earlier today Scottish authorities imposed the same restrictions, which are due to come into effect at midnight tonight.
Luxembourg was previously on the list of countries exempt from the requirement for travellers to self-isolate.
The UK has already said that all those returning from Spain must quarantine for 14 days after a spike in infections in the country.
It has said that it will not hesitate to impose further restrictions on other countries if it feels it is necessary to do so.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned people that the recent surge in cases in Europe had shown that the pandemic was not over yet.
“It is absolutely vital as a country that we continue to keep our focus and our discipline, and that we don’t delude ourselves that somehow we are out of the woods or that that is all over, because it isn’t all over”, he said.
Speaking to Sky News earlier today, health secretary Matt Hancock warned that Brits should expect further restrictions to be implemented in the coming days.
He named France as one country where infections had increased in the past few days. Yesterday there were nearly 1,400 new confirmed cases in France, while there were 846 in the UK today, the highest total since 28 June.
Downing Street is reportedly looking at applying similar quarantine restrictions to people coming from Belgium and Croatia.