Coronavirus: Tourist 'seething' after Wales quarantine changes

A Welshman on holiday in Greece said he was "seething" that he and his family must isolate for two weeks while tourists from England do not have to.

Jonathan, from Cardiff, said he was considering booking a hotel in England to avoid quarantining.

The Welsh government said arrivals from mainland Portugal, Gibraltar, French Polynesia and six Greek islands must isolate for two weeks.

It is the first time travel rules have differed in the four UK nations.

Wales followed Scotland by adding mainland Portugal, where infections have been rising, to its list of countries with quarantine restrictions, although rules came into place at 04:00 BST on Friday, while rules in Scotland come into place on Saturday.

Wales has also added the Greek islands of Crete, Mykonos, Zakynthos (also known as Zante), Lesvos, Paros and Antiparos, following a flight from Zakynthos to Cardiff last Tuesday which has seen more than 20 people test positive.

Travellers who live in Wales will have to quarantine regardless of whether they arrive at an English or Welsh airport.

The UK government announced on Thursday there would be no change to England's quarantine exemption list.

The first passengers affected by the new rules landed at Cardiff Airport on Friday afternoon.

All 140 passengers on the Ryanair flight from Faro in Algarve, Portugal, to Cardiff will now have to isolate for 14 days.

Almost half of those booked on the same plane's flight back to Faro did not turn up, with 87 no-shows.

Jonathan, who is on holiday in Chania, Crete, said: "It's the lack of consistent messaging and management across the whole UK government I'm really angry about now - and the fact they've announced it at five o'clock UK time, so at 19:00 they've said 'you've got until 04:00 tomorrow to get home'.

"I mean, what? Am I supposed to charter a private jet to try and get me and my family home?

"I'm almost at the point where I'm thinking I'm just going to book a Premier Inn or something in Bristol - if it costs me five or six hundred pounds I don't really care, I can afford it, I'll do it and stay there and I'll just live my life as normal."

Gareth Francis, from Beddau, Rhondda Cynon Taff, who is on holiday in Faro, Portugal, also criticised the decision to implement the quarantine rules so quickly, rather than giving people time to get home and avoid quarantining.

"My major disappointment with all of this is that over the last five weeks, people have been given until 04:00 to travel home on the Saturday," he said.

"It has implications financially and practically. I'm going to miss two weeks' work, my wife is going to miss the best part of a week's work."

Meanwhile Mike, from Ruthin, who is also on holiday in the Algarve in Portugal, said adding a quarantine for the whole mainland was unnecessary when most of the cases concentrated in other areas.

"I feel very aggrieved by it. We do appreciate when we made the decision that things could change at any given time, but our decision was based on when Denbighshire alone had more deaths than Portugal, so that's why we made our decision to come out here," he said.

"I emailed Vaughan Gething yesterday and asked him the question 'has anyone been out to the Algarve to see what's happening here?' Because the cases in the Algarve are very low."

Speaking on the BBC's Today programme, Health Minister Vaughan Gething said he was acting on the advice of the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), after more than 30 cases in Wales were linked to four different flights last week.

"Seeing a rising tide of infections coming in from that list of [Greek] islands, having that direct experience in Wales and very clear advice about the higher risk to UK public health from the JBC, I did not feel that there was any course of action other than taking some form of action," he said.

"It's not for me to explain why others haven't done that, but I'm very clear that we're following that advice and keeping Wales safe."

Grant Shapps, the UK government's transport secretary, which sets travel rules for England, acknowledged that the differences between the four nations was confusing.

"I do realise it creates confusion for people not to have a single rule, but we do have this devolved approach throughout the United Kingdom and I can only be responsible for the English part of that," he said.