LONDON (AP) – Britain’s newly established quarantine hotels received their first guests on Monday as the government tries to prevent new coronavirus variants from derailing a fast-moving vaccination strategy that has yielded more than 15 million shots in ten weeks.
Passengers arriving at London’s Heathrow Airport were escorted by guards to buses that took them to nearby hotels.
Some travelers said they tried and failed to get to Britain before Monday to avoid the quarantine.
Zari Tadayon, who flew from Dubai to Heathrow and was taken to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near the airport, said she had hoped to be quarantined in her London home. She said she felt “awful” about the enforced 10-day hotel stay.
‘I don’t know how to do it. It will be difficult, ”she said.
Britain has given its first dose of coronavirus vaccine to nearly a quarter of the 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 South Africa.
Under the new rules, residents of the UK and Ireland arriving in England from 33 high-risk countries will be required to 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 slowed down by the pandemic and the British are currently not allowed on overseas vacations.
However, critics say the British quarantine hotels are being set up too late, now that the South African variant is already circulating in the UK.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, border and immigration spokesman for the main Labor party of the opposition, said reports of passengers from “red zone” countries mixing with others on planes and at the airport showed that the government’s quarantine policy was “half-baked”.
On Sunday, the Conservative government reached its goal of giving the first of two doses of vaccine to 15 million of Britain’s most vulnerable people, including health workers and those over 70.
During a visit to a vaccination center in London on Monday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson praised the “incredible effort” of scientists, medics, pharmacists, members of the military and volunteers who had achieved the fastest rollout of vaccines in Europe.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said vaccination efforts are now being extended to those over the age of 65 and those with underlying health conditions. The government aims to give everyone over 50 a first vaccination 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, (and) we just got to the end of the first sprint.” He said months of vaccinations and possibly booster shots against new varieties were in the offing.
Britain has had the worst coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with more than 117,000 deaths, although infections and deaths are now steadily declining after more than a month of national lockdown. On Monday, the UK registered 9,765 new cases, the first time the number has dropped below 10,000 since Oct. 2. 230 new deaths were recorded, almost a third less than a week ago.
The government says it will announce a ‘road map’ on Feb. 22 to ease the lockdown.
Johnson is under pressure from some members of his ruling Conservative Party to lift the closure soon, allowing businesses to reopen and people visiting friends and family.
The prime minister, who was accused of being too slow to lock up Britain last spring, and then too quick to ease restrictions over the summer, is now taking a more measured tone.
“While the vaccination program is going well, we still don’t have enough data on the exact effectiveness of the vaccines in reducing the spread of infections,” Johnson said at a news conference.
“We have to be both optimistic, but also patient,” he said. “Because we want this lockdown to be the last.”
Pan Pylas in London contributed to this story.
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