The United Kingdom announced Tuesday (Nov. 24) that the quarantine period for foreign travelers arriving in the U.K. may be shortened in the days following their arrival if they test negative for the new coronavirus.
Under current regulations, travelers entering the U.K. are subject to a 14-day quarantine period. Beginning December 15, travelers will have the option of paying for a test five days later, which will end the quarantine period early if the test results are negative.
In Germany, officials from 16 states are working on issues related to next month’s Christmas holiday and how to make family gatherings safer.
The states have agreed on a proposal that would tighten restrictions in the weeks leading up to the holiday to curb the spread of the coronavirus, and then ease rules to allow smaller gatherings.
Officials are scheduled to discuss the plan with Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday.
Italian Chancellor Jean-Claude Conte raised his personal concerns about the Christmas holiday, saying Tuesday that people should not plan ski trips.
Conte said, “It is impossible to allow a vacation in a ski resort. We can’t afford the consequences.”
Italy was one of the hardest hit countries in the early stages of the global outbreak. The country on Monday became the sixth in the world with more than 50,000 deaths.
Spain was the other country hardest hit in the early stages of the outbreak. Like many regions, Spain’s tourism industry has suffered a sharp decline. The country’s statistics office reported Tuesday that the number of hotel nights booked in October fell 83 percent from a year earlier. The number of nights, also known as the number of nights booked, is a measure of a hotel’s occupancy rate for a given period of time. Hotels generally use the difference between the arrival date and departure date to calculate the number of nights spent.
As the United States enters the Thanksgiving holiday this week, there is concern. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging people not to travel and hold large family gatherings amid a spike in domestic infections.
According to Johns Hopkins University, more than 59 million people worldwide have now been infected with the new coronavirus.
The United States continues to lead the world with more than 12.4 million infections, followed by India (more than 9.1 million cases) and Brazil (6 million cases).
The number of deaths from the new coronavirus worldwide has reached approximately 1.4 million, with more than 257,000 of those deaths occurring in the United States.
Recent Comments