People arriving in the UK will now have to quarantine for ten days instead of two weeks.
Travellers arriving in the United Kingdom from the countries that are not on the list of safe corridor will have to self isolate themselves for ten days as opposed to two weeks. All four nations have agreed to reduce the number of quarantine days.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland’s chief medical officers released a joint statement mentioning that the new rule is already being applied in Wales and will be in action in the other nations from Monday. This reduced quarantine period will also apply to those who are already self-isolating.
Chief medical officers after reviewing the evidence said, they were confident about cutting the quarantine time by 4 days, reports The Guardian. “We urge everyone to self-isolate when appropriate – it will save lives.”, added the officers.
People are most infectious in the first 2 days before developing COVID-19 symptoms according to the United Kingdom’s top scientists. They also added that people are capable of passing the virus to between 1 and 2% of other people.
Dr. Jenny Harris, England’s deputy medical officer said that the evidence shows that “the tail-end of infectiousness if you like, is the one where an individual is least likely to transmit infection. So allowing somebody out of self-isolation a short time earlier than that is a reasonable balance between managing the risk to the public but allowing us not to intrude on their lives.”
The UK has also started providing vaccine for COVID-19 to its population in a hope that this will lessen the need for people to self-isolate.