Poland tightens Covid rules for travellers from Britain

UK visitors will have to spend seven days in quarantine even if they have a negative test result

A traveller at Heathrow airport in London, UK, on June 8, 2021. EPA

Poland is introducing a mandatory one-week quarantine for all travellers from Britain to curb the spread of the Delta variant of coronavirus, its Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

Britain has reported a rise in cases of the more contagious Delta strain, which was first identified in India.

“The decisions made on quarantine for travellers arriving from Great Britain are intended to reduce the risk of transmission of the Delta coronavirus variant from the endangered area,” Health Minister Adam Niedzielski told the state news agency Pap.

“We must take care of our citizens and their security.”

Health Ministry spokesman Wojciech Andrusiewicz said that as of Wednesday, travellers from Britain would be obliged to spend seven days in quarantine even if they had a negative test result before arrival.

They would be required to take a test after one week. The tighter rules were earlier applied to travellers from Brazil, India and South Africa.

Poland reported 188 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, well down from the height of the third wave in spring, when as many as 35,251 daily cases were recorded.

But despite the low numbers, there has been an increase in Delta variant cases.

The country of about 38 million people has reported 2,879,030 cases of the coronavirus and 74,858 deaths since the start of the pandemic.