Covid hotel quarantine booking site taken down

A new system for booking a place in the UK's hotel quarantine scheme was taken offline minutes after it launched.

The Covid quarantine hotel portal was removed temporarily for maintenance "to correct a minor technical error", the Department of Health said.

It said rooms are available "and travellers will be able to book through the site imminently".

From Monday, UK and Irish residents arriving in England from 33 countries must isolate in hotels, costing £1,750.

The so-called "red list" countries - including Portugal, Brazil and South Africa - are deemed high risk due to emerging new virus variants.

In Scotland, residents arriving from any country by air will have to isolate in hotels.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer criticised the "partial approach" taken in England, saying only quarantining arrivals from certain countries in hotels "isn't going to work".

The website had been accessible for some users intermittently since it was launched just after 13:00 GMT.

Around 1,300 people a week are arriving into the UK from those countries at the moment, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said.

The government has around 4,700 rooms across 16 hotels available for the new quarantine system. Travellers have to book a place in quarantine - which lasts 10 days - before arriving in the UK.

Failing to quarantine in a designated hotel when required will carry a fine of between £5,000 and £10,000.

Giving false travel history information on the mandatory passenger locator form filled in by travellers when they arrive in the UK will attract a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison.

All arrivals from countries not on the "red list" must see out a 10-day quarantine at home, but will be required to pay £210 for two additional private virus tests, booked prior to arrival.

It came as Health Secretary Matt Hancock said it was "too early" to know whether summer holidays can go ahead this year.

Mr Hancock said there was still "a lot of uncertainty" but ministers were doing everything possible to make sure people could have a holiday this year.

He told the BBC he had booked his own summer break in Cornwall "months ago".

And Sir Keir Starmer urged the government to "get rid of the mixed messages" about whether people should book holidays for later in the year.