Updated guidance on booking and staying in a quarantine hotel if you’ve been in a red list country
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Contents Travelling from a country that is not on the red list
Managed quarantine in a hotel: what it is Other types of managed
quarantine Who has to go into managed quarantine Unaccompanied
minors What you need to do before you arrive in England Where you
can arrive Arriving and transport to a managed quarantine
hotel...Request free trial
Contents
You cannot travel to the UK if you’ve been in a red list country in the previous 10 days unless you’re:
Everyone allowed to enter England who has been in a red list country in the 10 days before they arrive must:
Providing false or deliberately misleading information when filling out your passenger locator form is an offence punishable by imprisonment. You could be fined up to £10,000, imprisoned for up to 10 years, or both, if you do not provide accurate details about the countries you have visited in the 10 days before you arrived in the UK. If you break the quarantine rules you may face a penalty of up to £10,000. You should follow separate advice if you arrive in: Travelling from a country that is not on the red listYou should follow separate guidance if you’ve been in an amber list or green list country. You can also read an overview of all the things you need to do to: Managed quarantine in a hotel: what it isTo stop the spread of potentially harmful variants into the UK, stricter measures are in place for people who have been in a red list country in the 10 days before they arrive. Everyone who arrives into England and has been in a red list country must quarantine in a managed quarantine hotel for 10 full days from the point of their arrival. The day of arrival in England will be treated as day 0. See more information about what to expect if you’re going into hotel quarantine, including help and support. Other types of managed quarantineMost people who need to stay in managed quarantine will stay in a government-approved quarantine hotel. Exceptions to this are:
Who has to go into managed quarantineYou need to go into managed quarantine unless you’re exempt because of your job or have been granted an exemption for medical or compassionate reasons. You may need to show evidence at the border of the work you will be doing. Unaccompanied minorsChildren arriving in England from a red list country should not be travelling alone. A parent, guardian or appropriate adult must travel with them and go into managed quarantine with them on arrival. If this is not possible, a parent, guardian or appropriate adult will need to apply for an exemption. To apply for an exemption email MQS_new_Exemptions@dhsc.gov.uk. You need to do this at least 14 days before your travel date. You’ll receive an automated response with a list of questions that you need to answer. Your responses are used to assess your application. Exemptions will only be granted in exceptional circumstances. In general, children will not be allowed to travel alone. If the child attends boarding school they may be able to quarantine at the school. If you’re responsible for a child but are not quarantining with them, you’ll need to give the details of the appropriate adult who is when booking. What you need to do before you arrive in EnglandBefore you travel you must:
Book your quarantine hotel (administered by CTM) If you’re experiencing any difficulty booking through the booking portal, please phone +44 (0)20 7429 9732. You will need to agree to book and pay for a quarantine package before you complete your passenger locator form and board your return journey to the UK. How much you’ll need to pay
For those facing significant financial hardship as a result of this charge, there will be an opportunity to apply for a deferred repayment plan when booking. You will be required to pay back your debt to the government in 12 monthly instalments. There is no additional charge to your initial booking fee if you need to extend your stay as a result of positive tests at day 2 or day 8. We will keep package prices under review. While hotels normally set a zero fee for children aged under 3, we are setting this for children under 5 years old because they will not be tested. The proposed zero fee for children under 5 years old will mean that, for now, the government will bear the costs of additional food and drinks consumed by arrivals aged between 3 and 5 years old. You must not apply for deferred payment if you are not eligible. If you provide false information, or omit key information that has been asked for in your application, you will be committing fraud and may be prosecuted. If you have not arranged a quarantine package prior to your arrival in England, you face a penalty of up to £4,000 and will still have to pay for your quarantine package on arrival. Where you can arriveIf you’re required to quarantine in a managed quarantine hotel you can only arrive in England at certain ports of entry. Currently these are:
Other ports of entry may be added in the future. Carriers are not permitted to carry anyone who has been in a red list country in the previous 10 days to any other port of entry than those specified. Direct flights from red list countries must arrive at dedicated red list terminals. Currently these are at London Heathrow and Birmingham Airport. If you are required to quarantine in a managed quarantine hotel and do not arrive in England at one of the designated ports of entry, you may face a penalty of up to £10,000 and will be charged for the cost of transportation to the nearest designated port or entry. Arriving and transport to a managed quarantine hotelWhen you arrive in England you will need to provide your completed passenger locator form to Border Force officers alongside your passport and negative COVID-19 test result. You will be escorted through the airport with other passengers who need to quarantine at a managed quarantine hotel. Your quarantine package includes transport to your quarantine hotel (and back to the airport at the end of your quarantine to reconnect to your travel plans). Please follow signs and instructions for the Managed Quarantine Service. If you have a car parked at the airport, you will need to extend your parking period and pay the additional charges. If you need assistance with this, you can ask for that once you get to your hotel. Everyone will need to wear face coverings at all times (unless you’re exempt). A member of staff will make a note of where everyone is sitting on the bus, so that if someone later tests positive for COVID-19, NHS Test and Trace will be able to identify who has been in close contact. You must only travel to your managed quarantine hotel by the transport specified in your quarantine package and not by public or private transport. If you are a child arriving to attend boarding school and you are unaccompanied, separate arrangements will apply. At the end of the quarantine period you will be transported to the airport you were collected from when you arrived in England. If you enter England and intend to continue your journey directly to a country outside of the Common Travel Area (UK, Republic of Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands) then you do not need to book a quarantine package or enter managed quarantine. If necessary, you may travel straight from your port of arrival to another port in England to catch a flight, train or ferry going outside of the Common Travel Area, but you must take precautions to prevent the risk of virus transmission. These include:
Quarantining in a managed quarantine hotelWhen you arrive at the managed quarantine hotel you will be required to quarantine in your room for 10 full days. The managed quarantine hotel will provide your meals. It is not possible to select a particular room at the managed quarantine hotel or to seek a higher standard room when you arrive. You can quarantine with the people you travelled with and hotels will prioritise allocating larger or connecting rooms to families. VisitorsYou cannot have visitors in quarantine, including friends or family, unless they’re providing:
DeliveriesIf you have items delivered to you during the quarantine period (such as food deliveries), they will be brought to the door of your room by the managed quarantine hotel staff. Staff will try to bring the items to you as soon as possible. However, given the need to maintain compliance with COVID guidelines, deliveries may not be able to be brought to your door immediately when they arrive at the hotel. Services available in your hotelThe hotel will provide you with information about the services available, including food, laundry and free wifi. The hotels selected for managed quarantine are able to meet the vast majority of requirements and will be able to accommodate dietary requirements. Medical care and prescriptionsYou should bring your prescription medicines with you. You will be able to access NHS healthcare via 111 (or your normal GP) to seek medical attention, including for repeat prescriptions and/or if you need to fill a prescription. Please inform the medical staff at the hotel on arrival if you anticipate any issues. Leaving your roomYou will only be allowed to leave your room in very limited circumstances including:
Visiting dying family members and funeralsYou may request permission to leave quarantine for a limited period if a close family member or member of your household is dying. You may also request permission to leave quarantine to attend a funeral. This is limited to the day of the funeral, or in exceptional circumstances where it is not possible to travel to the funeral and back within one day, it may be possible (with restrictions) to stay overnight elsewhere if you cannot stay in a nearby managed quarantine hotel. You will need permission from security staff to ensure that arrangements minimise the public health risks. This will include agreeing a specific time with the hotel for returning to your room. You should not use public transport. If you are permitted to leave to visit a close family member or member of your household who is dying, you should:
It is recommended that visits are limited to a single visit on one day. If you are permitted to leave to attend the funeral of a close family member or member of your household, you should follow the guidance for attending a funeral during the COVID-19 pandemic. This includes:
Practise strict hand and respiratory hygiene by:
If visiting a healthcare or residential setting, the healthcare or residential setting would need to be notified in advance and they should confirm they are content to the security staff in the hotel at the time of being given permission. Testing in managed quarantineDay 2 testYou will need to take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 of your quarantine. The day you arrive in the UK will be treated as day 0. This first test is designed to help identify any potentially harmful variants of COVID-19 at the earliest opportunity. You will not be allowed to shorten your quarantine period if you receive a negative test result, as you may still develop COVID-19. Tests will be taken in your room in your quarantine hotel. If you receive a positive result from your day 2 test, you must continue your quarantine period restarting the 10 days beginning the day after the test was taken. If you’re in quarantine with people you’ve travelled with, they will also need to quarantine for 10 further days beginning the day after the test. If you receive a positive result from your day 2 test, you will not be required to take any further tests because you have been confirmed with infection and will isolate through the period when you may be infectious to others. Day 8 testYou will need to take a COVID-19 test on or after day 8, unless you received a positive result from your day 2 test. If you receive a positive test result from your day 8 test, you will be required to continue your quarantine period restarting the 10-day count beginning the day after the test. If you have quarantined for 10 full days and received a negative result to both your day 2 and day 8 tests and are well, you may leave the managed quarantine site. Your day of arrival in England counts as day 0 of your quarantine period. Ending quarantine earlyYou will not be able to end your managed quarantine early through the Test to Release scheme. Children aged 4 and underChildren aged 4 and under will not need to take the day 2 or day 8 test but they and their family or carers should only leave quarantine if they are well. If you get symptomsYou should order a test here if you develop at least one of these 3 COVID-19 symptoms at any point:
GroupsIf you’re in quarantine with people you have travelled with, they will need to quarantine when you receive a positive test for 10 full days beginning the day after you took your test. In a group quarantining together this could mean:
If you have interconnecting rooms in a hotel, you are considered one household. If someone tests positive, other people in the same room should be moved into another room if there’s space available in the hotel. This is as a precaution to help reduce the risk that the other people in the room develop COVID-19. If you do not take the tests you may face a penalty of up to £2,000. Leaving managed quarantineYou will be able to leave quarantine when you have received a negative result from your day 8 test and have quarantined for 10 full days from the point of arrival (the day of arrival counts as day 0). If you get a positive result from either of your tests, you will not be able to leave managed quarantine until 10 days have passed from the day after the date of the test. If, despite a negative test on day 8, you develop new COVID-19 symptoms on day 9 or day 10, this would trigger a further test and extended quarantine for 10 days, if the new test is positive. You will not be able to end your managed quarantine early through the Test to Release scheme. People who do not need to quarantineA very small proportion of people arriving in England who have visited or passed through a red list country will not need to quarantine in a managed quarantine hotel or in private accommodation. See the full list of job exemptions and information on exemptions from managed quarantine for medical or compassionate reasons. The guidance on ordering a test if you develop symptoms still applies to exemptions. Circumstances not covered by this guidanceIf you’re intending to travel to the UK in the next 14 days and are facing a set of circumstances that are not covered by this guidance, use the following email addresses for enquiries relating to:
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