People travelling from Belgium to the UK will now be subject to a 14-day quarantine, as reported yesterday by The Brussels Times.
The new rule is already in effect in Wales, where it started at midnight on Thursday, and will be applied in the rest of the UK as of 04:00 AM BST (05:00 AM Belgian time) on Saturday.
Travellers arriving from the Bahamas and Andorra will also have to quarantine for 14 days.
The UK’s Foreign Office also “currently advises British nationals against all but essential international travel” to Belgium, it said on its website.
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The new rule was announced by Transport Minister Grant Shapps on Twitter on Thursday night.
Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN. If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) August 6, 2020
Belgium currently has an incidence of 56.5 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants in the last 14 days, according to public health institute Sciensano, whereas the UK’s incidence is significantly lower, reaching 14.3 on Thursday according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
The quarantine follows similar measures applied to Spain and Luxembourg by the UK government.
Jason Spinks
The Brussels Times
