Quarantine Reduced to 5 Days
15th December 2020
Last modified on May 13th, 2021
Quarantine for people arriving in England is to be reduced to five days. Then people will need to take a test and, if negative, they can end their self-isolation. There are reports of problems though.
People will have to self-isolate immediately on arrival in England but will then be allowed to take a test after five days.
The test must be done by a government approved test centre.
If negative they can end their self-isolation.
People will have to pay for the private test themselves, and the cost is around £100.
All the ski nations in Europe require quarantine except for Norway, Finland and Iceland.
These three countries have quarantine restrictions on people entering from the UK.
The ‘Test and Release’ scheme is the recommendation of the government’s Travel Task Force, that was set up in October to examine ways to use testing to reduce the then 14-day self-isolation period.
“We have a plan in place to ensure that our route out of this pandemic is careful and balanced, allowing us to focus on what we can now do to bolster international travel while keeping the public safe,” said the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, as the new system was announced at the end of November.
“Our new testing strategy will allow us to travel more freely, see loved ones and drive international business.
“By giving people the choice to test on day 5, we are also supporting the travel industry as it continues to rebuild out of the pandemic.”
There are reports that some of the firms on the government’s list of approved test providers have stopped offering any new appointments.
Others say they’ve run out of testing kits or that they are unable to provide the service.
See our story on the day the new rules were announced with social media reaction from PlanetSKI readers.
Our friends over at Intersport believe that once resorts open up the reduction in quarantine time will encourage more to head to the mountains:
