Travellers locked in quarantine hotels to be told when they will be released
The red list was scrapped at 4am on Wednesday but many people remain in quarantine hotels.
Travellers detained in quarantine hotels will be told later today when they will be released, a senior official said.
Jonathan Mogford, who is responsible for the managed quarantine service at the UK Health Security Agency, was questioned about reports some people were fleeing the hotels after the red list was scrapped in England at 4am.
Mr Mogford told the Commons Transport Committee: “The standard practice has been that if you have started hotel quarantine, you need to complete it.
“For this de-listing, where Omicron has moved unexpectedly fast, we want to release people early.
“We are sorting out the arrangements for that as quickly as possible, we need to make sure we are not releasing Covid or Omicron-positive guests immediately.”
Mr Mogford told the committee there have been “unprecedentedly high rates” of positive Covid cases among travellers quarantined from the 11 red list countries, which included South Africa and Nigeria.
He said latest figures suggest “nearly 5% of people in the hotels are positive”.
There have been “roughly 5,000 guests through in this round of red listing”, he said.
His comments indicate that around 250 of those people tested positive.
Asked about complaints over poor food, he said: “We share the concerns of what we have seen on social media and those have been picked up with the hotels directly.”
