UK May Announce Decision on Possible Quarantine for Arrivals From Portugal on Friday

LONDON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 03rd September, 2020) UK Health Minister Matt Hancock said on Thursday that any official decision on whether to reimpose a 14-day quarantine for travelers arriving in the United Kingdom from Portugal will not be announced until noon (11:00 GMT) on Friday.

"We follow the data and we make these announcements in an organized way on a Friday lunchtime. We are going to publish a further decision tomorrow having looked at the data and I'm not going to pre-judge that," Hancock told the Sky news broadcaster when asked about speculations that Portugal was about to be removed from the travel corridor list.

Portugal, a popular tourist destination for UK's holidaymakers, has seen a spike in the number of new COVID-19 over the last few days, prompting rumors that the European country was on the brink of being removed from the UK safe travel list after only two weeks of being added to it.

According to local media reports, the current seven-day coronavirus case rate in Portugal has risen to 22.7 per 100,000 people, compared to 14.2 for the previous week.

Travelers arriving in the UK from countries where the rate is above the 20 per 100,000 people threshold must self-isolate for 14 days, or risk a fine of 1,000 Pounds ($1,000), the government has said.