LONDON (AP) – Newly created British quarantine hotels received their first guests on Monday as the government tries to prevent new coronavirus variants from derailing a moving vaccination action that has resulted in more than 15 million shots in ten weeks .
Passengers arriving at London Heathrow Airport were escorted by security guards to buses taking them to nearby hotels.
Some of the travelers said they had tried and failed to get to Britain before Monday to avoid quarantine.
Zari Tadayon, who flew to Heathrow from Dubai and was taken to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel near the airport, said she hoped she would be allowed to quarantine at her home in London. He said he felt “horrible” about the mandatory 10-day hotel stay.
“I do not know how I will deal with it. It will be difficult, ”he said.
Britain has administered a first dose of coronavirus vaccine to nearly a quarter of its population, but health officials are concerned that vaccines may not work as well in some new strains of the virus, including one first identified in the 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 expense, with meals delivered to their doorstep. In Scotland, the rule applies to arrivals from any country.
The pandemic has already slowed down international travel and the British are currently banned from going on holiday abroad.
Critics, however, say Britain’s quarantine hotels are being set up too late, as the South African variant is already circulating in the UK.
Nick Thomas-Symonds, a spokesman for borders and immigration for the main opposition Labor Party, said reports of passengers from “red zone” countries mingling with others on planes and at the airport showed that the policy of government quarantine was “half cooked.”
On Sunday, the Conservative government achieved 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.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited a vaccination center in London on Monday, praised the “incredible effort” of scientists, doctors, pharmacists, the military and volunteers who had achieved the fastest deployment of vaccines in Europe.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said vaccination collection now extends to people over 65 and people with underlying health conditions. The government aims to give everyone over the age of 50 their first vaccine in late April and vaccinate the entire adult population in September.
Simon Stevens, chief executive of the National Health Service of England, warned that the national vaccination campaign consisted of “two sprints and a marathon, (and) we have just reached the end of the first sprint”. He said months of inoculations and possibly booster shots against new variants were expected.
Britain has had the worst outbreak of coronavirus in Europe, with more than 117,000 deaths, although infections and deaths are falling steadily after more than a month of national blockade. On Monday, the UK registered 9,765 new cases, the first time the figure has been below 10,000 since 2 October. 230 new deaths were recorded, almost a third less than a week ago.
The government says it will announce a “roadmap” to ease the blockade on Feb. 22.
Johnson is being pressured by some members of his Conservative Party governor to lift the closure soon, which will allow companies to reopen and people to visit friends and family.
The Prime Minister, who has been accused of being too slow to block Britain last spring, and who was too quick to ease restrictions over the summer, is now setting a more measured tone.
“While the vaccination program is going well, we still don’t have enough data on the exact effectiveness of vaccines to reduce the spread of the infection,” Johnson told a news conference.
“We have to be optimistic but also patient,” he said. “Because we want this blockade to be the last.”
___
Pan Pylas in London contributed to this story.
___
Follow all AP pandemic coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic, https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-vaccine and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak