LONDON (AP) – Newly established quarantine hotels in Britain received their first guests on Monday, as the government tries to prevent new variants of the coronavirus from preventing a rapid vaccination campaign that has already delivered more than 15 million vaccines in ten weeks.
Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow airport were escorted by security guards to the buses that took them to nearby hotels.
Some of the travelers said they tried and failed to reach Britain before Monday to avoid quarantine.
Zari Tadayon, who flew from Dubai to Heathrow and was taken to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near the airport, said he hoped he would be allowed to be quarantined at his London home. She said she felt “horrible” about the forced 10-day stay at the hotel.
“I don’t know how I’m going to deal with this. It will be difficult, ”she said.
Britain has given a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine to almost a quarter of its population, but health officials are concerned that vaccines may not work as well on some new strains of the virus, including one first identified in the UK. South Africa.
Under the new rules, residents of the United Kingdom and Ireland arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries must stay in designated hotels for 10 days at their own expense, with meals delivered to their door. In Scotland, the rule applies to arrivals from any country.
International travel has already been drastically suppressed by the pandemic and the British are currently prohibited from taking holidays abroad.
Critics, however, say Britain’s quarantine hotels are being set up too late, with the South African variant already circulating in the UK
Nick Thomas-Symonds, a border and immigration spokesman for the main opposition party, the Labor Party, said reports of passengers from “red zone” countries mixing with others on airplanes and at the airport showed that the quarantine policy of the government was “incomplete”.
On Sunday, the conservative government reached its goal of giving the first of two doses of the vaccine to 15 million of Britain’s most vulnerable people, including healthcare professionals and people over 70.
Visiting a vaccination center in London on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the “unbelievable effort” of scientists, doctors, pharmacists, military and volunteers who achieved the fastest vaccine distribution in Europe.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the vaccination campaign is now being extended to people over 65 and those with underlying health problems. The government plans to give everyone over 50 their first injected vaccine by the end of April and to vaccinate the entire adult population by September.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service in England, warned that the national vaccination campaign consisted of “two sprints and a marathon (e) we have just reached the end of the first sprint”. He said months of inoculations and possibly booster doses against new variants are coming.
Britain has had the worst coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with more than 117,000 deaths, although infections and deaths are steadily falling after more than a month of national blockade. On Monday, the UK registered 9,765 new cases, the first time the number has fallen below 10,000 since 2 October. There were 230 new deaths recorded, almost a third less than a week ago.
The government says it will announce a “roadmap” to ease the blockade on February 22.
Johnson is under pressure from some members of his Conservative Party in the government to lift the blockade soon, allowing businesses to reopen and people to visit friends and family.
The prime minister, who was accused of being too slow to arrest Britain last spring, and then too quick to ease restrictions during the summer, is now taking a more subdued tone.
“Although the vaccination program is going well, we still don’t have enough data on the exact effectiveness of vaccines in reducing the spread of the infection,” Johnson told a news conference.
“We must be optimistic, but also patient,” he said. “Because we want this block to be the last.”
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Pan Pylas in London contributed to this story.
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