NICOLA Sturgeon has said the UK Government’s proposals for quarantine hotels are “probably the least that could be done” on the issue.
Home Secretary Priti Patel is expected to announce compulsory stays in quarantine hotels for British residents arriving from Covid-19 variant hotspots like South America, southern Africa and Portugal.
British nationals and those who live in the UK coming from high-risk countries will have to self-isolate in a hotel at their own expense for 10 days.
Labour have already said that hotel quarantine should be mandatory for everyone arriving in Britain. Today Scotland’s First Minister said while she did not want to pre-empt the UK Government’s announcement on the plan, she believes it does not go “far enough”.
Sturgeon indicated she would continue calling on UK ministers to strengthen the proposals – but if that does not happen the Scottish Government will consider going further themselves.
Acknowledging that the UK “perhaps should have done more" on borders during 2020, Sturgeon said: “I think I do have a duty at this point to say that I am concerned that the proposal does not go far enough and I’ve made that point very strongly in the four-nations discussions that we’ve just had today.
“So while the Scottish Government will initially emulate the UK Government’s steps on enhancing quarantine arrangements, we will be seeking urgently to persuade them to go much further, and indeed to move to a comprehensive system of supervised quarantine.
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“Given the obvious practical issues involved, we are very clear that our preference is to have consistent quarantine rules across the UK, but if there is no agreement to go further on a four-nations basis, we will be considering going further ourselves and we will set out any such additional measures next week.”
Under further questioning at the daily briefing, Sturgeon said: “I'm trying not to preempt the Prime Minister's announcement, but there has been a lot of speculation in the media which I think is probably in the right ballpark.
“I would describe what I think he's going to announce today, as, minimal on this front. It's probably the least that could be done on the issue of supervised quarantine.
“Let me be clear, I welcome it as far as it goes. I think it's important, in and of itself. But I don't think it goes far enough for the reasons that I've set out.
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“It would leave far too many weak points and gaps in that. If we think of it as a protective ring around the country, it would just leave far too many points of entry for the virus still to to get round it.
“I hope we can persuade the UK Government to go further, certainly, they haven't shut their minds or the door to that discussion.”
Countries like Australia, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Qatar already operate mandatory quarantine hotels for overseas visitors.
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