Covid UK news – live: Hancock confirms £10,000 fines and 10 years in prison if you break new travel rules
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Your support makes all the difference.Travellers arriving in the UK and put into hotels for Covid-19 quarantine will be charged £1,750 for their stay, Matt Hancock has confirmed.
The health secretary said people caught flouting the rules can be fined up to £10,000 and face 10 years in prison.
In a statement to MPs in the Commons on Tuesday, Mr Hancock said 16 hotels are involved in the quarantine programme and will take travellers from Monday.
The plan was floated last week that UK nationals returning from 33 "red list" countries would be required to quarantine in closely monitored government-designated hotels, where they would have to take two tests.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has concluded it is "extremely unlikely" coronavirus spread from a Chinese laboratory leak and no further work is needed to investigate this theory.
The WHO said its probe into the origins of Sars-CoV-2, the virus responsible for Covid-19, had uncovered new information but had not dramatically changed the picture of the outbreak in the city of Wuhan.
Experts believe the virus could have been circulating in other regions before it was identified in the central Chinese city at the end of 2019.
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Travel boss welcomes plans to test UK arrivals
Derek Jones, chief executive of luxury travel company Kuoni, welcomed the plan to test arriving travellers.
He said: "As we have said all along, a robust testing regime is the way to open up travel again but it has to replace or at least shorten quarantine.
"That's the way to get travel moving again."
Care home Covid deaths reach highest level since May
Some 2,505 care home resident deaths involving Covid-19 in England and Wales were registered in the week to 29 January 29 - the highest total since the week to 1 May 2020.
A total of 35,720 care home residents in England and Wales have now had Covid-19 recorded on their death certificate, the ONS said.
The figures cover deaths of care home residents in all settings, not just in care homes.
Covid-19 virus may have been circulating outside Wuhan before first reported cases, says expert
The virus that causes Covid-19 could have been circulating in other regions before it was identified in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019, a top expert at China's health authority has revealed.
Liang Wannian, an expert with China's Health Commission, also told a press briefing at the end of a nearly one-month visit to Wuhan by a World Health Organisation-led team that there had been no substantial spread of the virus in the city before the late 2019 outbreak.
Wuhan investigation has not dramatically changed picture of outbreak, says WHO expert
The head of the World Health Organisation-led team probing the origins of Covid-19 has said their investigation uncovered new information but has not dramatically changed the picture of the outbreak.
Peter Ben Embarek, a WHO virus expert, also told a press briefing that work to identify the origins of the coronavirus points to a natural reservoir in bats, but it is unlikely they were in Wuhan, the central Chinese city where the outbreak was discovered in late 2019.
Thousands to have coronavirus tests in Manchester
Thousands of people in Manchester will be tested for coronavirus after a mutation of the more transmissible Kent variant was detected in the city.
Some 10,000 tests will be rolled out from today after four people from two unconnected households were found to be infected with the E484K mutation - nicknamed an 'escape mutation' because it helps the bug slip past the body's defence systems.
Our north of England correspondent Colin Drury has more details:
Thousands to have coronavirus tests in Manchester after ‘escape’ mutation of Kent variant detected
Some 10,000 residents to be screened after E484K change - which helps bug slip past body's defence system - was found in city
‘Extremely unlikely’ Covid spread from Wuhan lab leak, says WHO
It is "extremely unlikely" coronavirus spread from a Chinese laboratory leak and no further work is needed to investigate this theory, the World Health Organisation has concluded.
Follow our breaking news story below for more updates:
‘Extremely unlikely’ that Covid spread from Wuhan lab leak, says WHO
It is "extremely unlikely" that coronavirus spread from a Chinese laboratory leak and no further work is needed to investigate this theory, the World Health Organisation has concluded.
Summer holiday prices soar as millions book despite warnings
Tui says customers are paying one-fifth more for summer 2021 holidays, despite multiple warnings against booking from ministers and health professionals.
Our travel correspondent Simon Calder explains more:
Summer holiday prices soar as millions book, says Tui
‘Vaccinations and rapid tests make an end to the standstill in tourism possible’ – Tui chief executive Fritz Joussen
Thousands of nurses yet to receive first Covid vaccine, industry warns
Tens of thousands of nurses in the UK have yet to receive a first dose of the coronavirus vaccine, according to a new survey.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found 85 per cent of 24,370 nursing staff members polled between 29 January and 2 February had received at least one dose.
Samuel Lovett has more details:
Thousands of nurses yet to receive first Covid vaccine, industry warns
15 per cent of staff remain unvaccinated, according to Royal College of Nursing survey
Spike in prison cases behind rise in county’s infection rates
A prison has carried out mass testing after a Covid-19 outbreak is believed to have accounted for around half of all cases in its county area.
HMP Stocken in Rutland, which had been free of the virus for 11 months, confirmed in a letter to inmates' relatives that a number of men and staff had tested positive.
As well as lateral flow tests for staff, the jail, which normally holds around 950 men, has organised mass testing of everyone housed on wings affected by outbreaks.
Travellers into Scotland to pay for their own quarantine
Travellers forced to quarantine upon arrival in Scotland will have to cover their own accommodation.
Transport secretary Michael Matheson said the government will block book hotels, but those living in the rooms will have to pay.
Following a UK government announcement of its plans on managed quarantine, first minister Nicola Sturgeon said Scotland would go further, eventually forcing each traveller to spend a period in supervised quarantine before being allowed to enter the country.
Speaking before the Health and Sport Committee today, hours before announcements of the schemes in Holyrood and Westminster, Mr Matheson said the UK government had not changed its views on managed quarantine, which will see only those arriving from certain countries forced to self-isolate.
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