Hundreds of thousands of Britons are expected to attempt to curtail their vacations in France and race home before 4am this Saturday, in order to avoid having to enter a 14-day quarantine after entering the UK, The Telegraph reports.
Following a spike in coronavirus cases in France - 2,699 new cases between Wednesday and Thursday - the UK government decided to place France on its "red list" of countries, giving travelers less than two days to adjust their plans. Trains and airlines operating out of France to England are reportedly almost fully booked by now, and it appears likely that many of the estimated 400,000 Brits still in France won't make it home in time.
Yesterday, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the government would be “absolutely ruthless” with imposing the measures, even with “our closest and dearest partners.”
He noted that, “We can’t be remotely complacent about our own situation. Everybody understands that in a pandemic you don’t allow our population to be reinfected or the disease to come back in. That is why the quarantine measures are very important and we have to apply them in a very strict way.”