Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed anyone entering Scotland from a foreign country must now enter a quarantine hotel for ten days.
It comes as the UK government introduced a new system that would see travellers from a number of high-risk 'red list' countries enter a hotel upon arrival, but today Nicola Sturgeon warned that the new UK travel ban 'does not go far enough.'
The First Minister confirmed that all people entering Scotland from a foreign country must now enter a quarantine hotel for ten days, with the First Minister saying: "we intend to introduce a mandatory quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from."
Speaking live from parliament today, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed the decision, saying: "It is essential that we also protect against fresh importation of the virus from overseas, this is particularly important as the virus mutates and new more infectious potentially more severe variants emerge."
She went on to say that last July Scotland 'eliminated Covid' before allowing it to come back in through overseas travel, adding: "We must stop this from happening again."
She said that the UK government travel ban 'does not go far enough' and confirmed that "managed quarantine must be much more comprehensive."
"I can therefore confirm today that we intend to introduce a mandatory quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from," she said.
"Obviously we cannot unilaterally implement immediate managed quarantine for people who arrive in other parts of the UK before travelling on to Scotland so we will continue to urge to UK government to adopt a similar comprehensive approach."
