I will take this opportunity to update Parliament on the Scottish Government’s approach to international travel and border health measures. I will set out more detail shortly, but I can confirm that, from Monday 15 February, all international travellers who arrive directly into Scotland by air will be subject to a requirement to enter managed isolation.
First, I will provide the latest Covid statistics for Scotland, which the First Minister announced earlier today. The statistics set the context for the action that we consider to be necessary on travel and border controls. Yesterday, 822 positive cases were reported. That represents 7.2 per cent of all tests that were carried out. There are 1,618 people in hospital, which is a decrease of 54 from yesterday. There are 112 people in intensive care, which is four more than yesterday.
I am sorry to confirm that, in the past 24 hours, a further 58 deaths were registered of patients who first tested positive over the previous 28 days. As a result, there have now been 6,501 deaths under that measurement. I extend my sympathy and condolences to everyone who has lost a beloved member of their family or a friend.
Those numbers are still much higher than we would like, but they show that this wave of the pandemic is starting to recede.
At the same time, vaccine deployment continues at pace. We expect to exceed 1 million total vaccinations in Scotland this week. As of 8.30 this morning, 928,122 people in Scotland have received their first dose of the vaccine. Those encouraging signs help to explain why, in the Scottish Government’s view, stronger restrictions on international travel are needed.
The Covid-19 Genomics UK report on genomic sequencing shows the role that international travel played in the rise in cases last summer. Around 40 per cent of new lineages in Scotland identified in that analysis came directly from overseas through international travel. The rest came from elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
We also know that the nature of the risk from international travel has changed. We face a different challenge in variants of the coronavirus than we faced last year. Two specific mutations give cause for concern. That concern is increased because they have emerged repeatedly and independently in different parts of the world.
One mutation is believed to be associated with increased transmissibility, which makes it easier to spread the virus. The second mutation is believed to be associated with resistance to protective antibodies, so that, if someone has already had Covid-19, they could be at risk of reinfection from the variant. That could mean that the vaccines that we are deploying may be less effective against those variants. The variant identified in South Africa has both of those mutations, as does a second variant found in Brazil.
It is vital that we do everything possible to prevent those variants from entering Scotland and gaining a foothold. We cannot risk variants from international travel undermining the deployment of vaccines.
Of course, case numbers still matter. Our border health measures play an important role in suppressing the number of new cases in Scotland, but protecting the vaccines and helping us return to a greater degree of normality in our day-to-day lives is now also a major part of the purpose of the international travel regulations.
The Scottish Government is clear that policy on international travel controls must be guided by expert clinical advice, and that advice is clear. We need a comprehensive approach to restricting international travel.
The Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies concluded in papers published last week that
“reactive, geographically targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon to stop importation of new variants.”
It went on to highlight
“the lag between emergence and identification of variants of concern”
as well as
“the potential for indirect travel”
to the UK via a third country.
Unfortunately, at present, the UK Government continues to rely on a targeted, reactive approach. That has been what we, along with the other UK nations, have been doing up until now. It has led to additional restrictions on travel from areas at risk from the variants identified in South Africa and Brazil—covering South America, large parts of Africa and countries with close travel links to those regions. It is clear that that approach is no longer sufficient to provide the protection that is necessary. It depends on the ability of the joint biosecurity centre to assess the risk of variants. The JBC will update us on countries subject to those measures next week. However, the key challenge is the availability of data to inform the JBC’s analysis.
With very limited genome sequencing taking place globally, the data on new variants is unreliable. It is therefore hard to say with confidence, even for the variants that we know about, where the high-risk countries are. That is why the Scottish Government wants a comprehensive approach to managed isolation.
So, from Monday, we will require all international travellers who fly directly into Scotland to enter managed isolation. That goes further than the measures announced by the UK health secretary earlier today. The UK Government has committed to adopting managed isolation only for travellers returning from red list countries. We know that that is not sufficient, and we have therefore gone further.
We believe that—with some limited exemptions—all international travellers should be required to isolate in managed facilities The Welsh First Minister has echoed that, arguing that anyone entering the UK should be expected to quarantine.
Our aim has always been to manage international travel on a four-nations basis where possible. We are therefore engaging with the UK and Welsh Governments and the Northern Ireland Executive to agree a joint approach to contracting the transport and accommodation services required for managed isolation. That will involve a common approach to the procurement of hotels and related services, initially in England and Scotland, based on a UK Government contract. That approach will have the flexibility to respond to the different policy direction that we are taking to ensure that all arrivals in Scotland are required to enter quarantine.
Passengers flying to Scotland from overseas will be required to use a common online portal to book and pay for a period of mandatory isolation in a quarantine hotel. That booking system, operated by the UK Government, will go live on Thursday. We have identified six hotels close to Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports, with a combined capacity of 1,300 rooms. The cost to the first traveller in a room will be £1,750, with supplementary costs for additional family members.
Those costs will include a mandatory testing regime: we will require all arrivals to be tested on day 2 and day 8 after their arrival. That will be organised at first through the UK testing programme, with the intention of quickly moving to using private sector testing provision. The Lighthouse lab has the capacity to meet the need for testing that would be caused by current levels of travel. We will develop a managed isolation welfare fund for travellers who may struggle to meet the charges associated with quarantine.
We have been in touch with the airports. Transport Scotland officials briefed Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Glasgow airports over the weekend, and the connectivity minister, Paul Wheelhouse, is discussing managed isolation with Scottish airports as I speak.
The number of travellers coming directly to Scotland is reducing, and I expect the quarantine measures to reduce arrivals further. There were approximately 1,600 arrivals in the final week of January, but that fell to only around 730 in the first week of February. However, the number of people arriving via other hubs is rising. Passengers who enter England from red-list countries and who intend to travel on to Scotland will have to isolate in a hotel in England. Last week, there were 130 such travellers.
We continue to press the UK Government to adopt a more comprehensive approach and to require all arrivals to go into a quarantine hotel. We ask the UK Government to work with us to identify any international travellers who are not caught by the current approach, so that arrangements can be made for them to isolate in a quarantine hotel, in line with policy in Scotland.
The measures will be backed up with the introduction of new criminal offences. Those will add to the powers that enforcement bodies already have at their disposal, such as the offences of culpable and reckless conduct.
We are working closely with Police Scotland, Border Force and other justice partners on implementing a range of offences and penalties to support the managed isolation policy and aid compliance. Of course, no non-essential international travel is allowed at present. It is important that people adhere to these rules. We will continue to keep them under review and to consider whether we need to do more to protect our communities from the risk of importation.
There will be some exemptions from the requirement to isolate in managed facilities. However, many exemptions will require travellers to self-isolate at home or in their own accommodation. They will be able to leave isolation only for the essential work that they are here to do. A small number of arrivals will not be required to isolate; for example, those in essential supply chains for goods coming into Scotland, foreign diplomats and those in essential defence activities. We are also tightening some of our existing exemptions further. That will include limiting overseas training for elite sportspeople to athletes and coaches preparing for the Olympics and Paralympics.
The number of international travellers coming into Scotland has fallen significantly. Non-essential travel remains unlawful and the majority of arrivals right now are required to self-isolate at home. The stronger approach that we are taking is necessary and proportionate. I expect tougher restrictions to lead to a further reduction in travel numbers.
As transport secretary, I understand the impact that these vital measures to protect Scotland from the virus will have on the aviation sector. There is a role for the sector to play, and we will work closely with airlines and airports to ensure that passengers are conveyed safely and securely at all stages of their journey. We are supporting the sector, including by maintaining our package of business rates relief for airports. However, given the challenges that the aviation sector in Scotland is facing, I intend to build on our existing engagement and create an aviation working group. It is important that the group meets the needs of the sector, so we will work with our industry stakeholders to refine its scope.
We have had to make many difficult decisions in the course of this pandemic, and this one is no different. It is clear that to manage the risk of the importation of new variants and give vaccine deployment the best chance of bringing us closer to normality here in Scotland, we have to place further limitations on international travel. In order for those to be as effective as possible, I will continue to encourage UK ministers to match our ambition and help protect Scotland and all of the UK.