Coronavirus quarantine: Matt Hancock unable to name any countries other than Brazil with worse infection rate than UK

‘There are other countries where it may be safe to be able to not have a quarantine in place,’ said the health secretary

Matt Hancock has defended the government’s controversial new quarantine policy – even though he could not name any countries other than Brazil with a worse infection rate than the UK.

Since 8 June, almost all international arrivals at British airports, ferry ports and Channel Tunnel rail terminals have been required to self-isolate for two weeks.

The strategy has been deplored by the travel industry, with one campaigner saying: “Every day of quarantine is hundreds of jobs lost in the sector.”

The government is looking at “travel corridors” or “air bridges” – bilateral no-quarantine deals – that would remove the self-isolation requirement for key destinations such as Spain, France, Portugal and Greece, which have much lower infection rates than the UK.

Interviewed by Kay Burley on Sky News, the health secretary was asked to name any other nation that was performing worse than Britain.

He replied: “My policy judgment is that sadly quarantine is necessary because there are countries where the rate of infection is well above one.”

Ms Burley asked: “But apart from Brazil, which ones?”

Mr Hancock said: “I’m going to allow the advice to come to us and then we will make the decisions and announce them at the end of the month.”

Later, on the BBC’s Today programme, he said: “If you look at other countries around the world, there are some other countries where the curve is going up and appears to be getting up exponentially.

“That’s a big worry.”

When asked by Nick Robinson if the policy would be scrapped, the health secretary said: “No. It’s really important because there is some countries around the world, as we discussed at the start, where this virus is not under control and the number of infections is going up very sharply.

“Having said that, there are other countries where it may be safe to be able to not have a quarantine in place in the same way.

“I’m working with [transport secretary] Grant Shapps, on whether those countries that have a low rate of infection, where we trust their figures, where the infection rate isn’t going up, and where we can have that discussion with the other country and come to an agreement on a travel corridor.”

He added: “I want people to go on summer holidays.”

The government is reviewing the quarantine arrangements on 29 June. It is facing a legal challenge from British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair to reveal the scientific basis for introducing a blanket quarantine scheme.

There are concerns that the policy will actually increase infections in the UK.

Last week Sir David Skegg, a New Zealand professor of preventive and social medicine, told MPs: “From the point of view of the United Kingdom’s health system, is it going to make things better or worse?

“Someone could argue that if they go and spend two weeks sitting on a beach in Greece, they’re actually less likely to become infected than if they remain in the UK.

“It doesn’t look very logical to me to have 14 days quarantine for people coming from countries with a much lower incidence and prevalence of Covid-19.”

A government spokesperson said: “The quarantine system is informed by science, backed by the public and designed to keep us all safe.”