UK to mandate 14-day quarantine for travelers entering country beginning June 8

The United Kingdom will mandate a 14-day quarantine for anyone, citizens included, flying into the country starting on June 8 to curb the spread of COVID-19.

British Home Secretary Priti Patel announced the travel update on Friday, saying that upon arrival to Great Britain’s airports, travelers will be required to provide contact information and their lodging information, The New York Times reported.

Those who violate the mandatory 14-day quarantine will be subjected to fines up to 1,000 pounds ($1,200) and possibly an increased penalty, according to the newspaper. 

Patel said that some workers would be exempt from the measures but did not elaborate on further details. 

Previous reports indicated truckers and freight workers, along with Irish citizens and people from the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, would be exempt, according to the Times. 

The travel order comes more than seven weeks after Prime Minister Boris Johnson issued a stay-at-home order in the country. Since then, the prime minister has shifted the order to a leveled alert system. 

Michael O’Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, called the new quarantine measures “hopelessly defective” and “idiotic,” saying that the rule “would effectively kill” international travel into England, the Times reported.

According to Sky News, Jonathon Ashworth, shadow health secretary, strongly disagreed with O’Leary’s comments, saying, “Not taking all the measures that we should be taking is the idiotic position.”

“Not taking all the measures that we should be taking is the idiotic position.”

Shadow health secretary, @JonAshworth disagrees with the Ryanair CEO over the implementation of lockdown measures.

Latest #Coronavirus updates https://t.co/1zLFpCeX0s pic.twitter.com/gBVjcj7J5Z

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) May 22, 2020

In the U.K., there have been more trhan 254,000 COVID-19 cases reported since the coronavirus outbreak began and 36,393 total fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University data.