Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas added to UK’s quarantine list
Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas have been added to the UK’s quarantine list, after a spike in coronavirus cases.
People arriving in England from Andorra, Belgium and the Bahamas from 4am on Saturday 8 August will have to self-isolate for two weeks.
Tweeting on Thursday evening, transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “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.”
Belgium has had a consistent rise in coronavirus infections in recent weeks, with 27.8 new cases per 100,000 people, compared to the UK’s current 8.4. It is also higher than the 27.4 per 100,000 people that Spain had when the government removed it from the exemption list.
There have been over 71,000 confirmed infections in Belgium in total, with 9,852 people having died from the virus so far.
Due to the the size of its population, it means that the country has one of the highest per capita death rates from the disease in the world.
In Andorra, new cases per week have increased 5-fold over the same time period, while in the Bahamas the weekly case rate peaked at 78.6 last week, up from 3.1 in mid-July.
Shapps also announced the government would make travellers from Brunei and Malaysia exempt from quarantine measures after cases decreased.
Wales made a similar move earlier today, and the changes will come into force from midnight on Friday.
It comes after the government removed Spain and Luxembourg from the exemption list after data showed a sharp increase in cases in the countries.
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