Portugal on the brink of being added back onto quarantine list and needs drop in number of cases

Portugal needs a ‘miracle drop’ in coronavirus cases to avoid going back on the UK’s quarantine list, it was claimed last night.

The warning came just a week after tourists were given the green light to visit the country.

On Friday, Portugal reported its highest new daily virus figure for seven weeks, with 401 cases detected.

Paul Charles, boss of travel consultancy PC Agency, said the figures for Portugal suggest it could be taken off the Foreign Office travel corridor list in days. 

He added: ‘Portugal is likely to go back on the UK’s quarantine list this week and the country itself is now preparing a ‘state of contingency’ from September 15.

‘It has been unable to manage its caseload over the last two weeks as more tourists have entered Portugal, especially Lisbon and Porto.’

PC Agency, which publishes a daily tally of country infection rates, listed Portugal as an ‘amber’ nation, meaning it is approaching the UK threshold for quarantine with 19.4 virus cases per 100,000 people over a seven-day cumulative count – compared with 12.2 in Britain. 

The Government’s threshold for imposing quarantine is said to be 20 cases per 100,000.

Mr Charles stressed: ‘It will need to see a miracle drop in case numbers by Thursday to avoid being added again to the Government’s on-off quarantine list as it is quickly veering into the red zone.’ 

He warned that numbers were also rising in Italy.

He insisted: ‘Only a clear airport testing strategy from the UK government will remove this anxious wait facing many British tourists each week, enabling them to book with confidence and test on their return, save jobs in the travel sector and help it recover faster.’

Around 75,000 UK nationals are thought to be on holiday in Portugal or due to fly there imminently. 

Many could face having to fly home early to beat a deadline before any quarantine restriction is imposed. 

A clamp on travellers from Portugal would represent a further embarrassment for a Government which has been lambasted for its ‘shambolic’ marshalling of the travel sector during the pandemic.

In late June, ministers began encouraging Britons to holiday abroad to boost the travel industry as restrictions were eased, only to warn within weeks that ‘no travel is risk-free.’ 

That followed a decision to introduce quarantine measures on arrivals from Spain with just five hours’ notice.

Mr Charles suggested yesterday that Portugal had been a ‘victim of its own success in attracting so many tourists rapidly’. 

When Portugal was added to the travel corridor list on August 22 – meaning no need for holidaymakers to quarantine for 14 days upon their return to the UK – flight comparison site Skyscanner reported a 2,000 per cent increase in bookings.

Travel website Trivago reported that bookings to Portugal last week were 125 per cent up on the same point last year, while airlines such as Jet2 and Ryanair put on extra flights.

When quarantine restrictions for travel from Portugal were lifted, its rate of virus cases over seven days was 14.6 per 100,000 people, while the UK figure stood at 11.2.

But the PC Agency table showed that by Friday Portugal’s rate had climbed to 16.4, and rose again to 18.1 on Saturday and 19.4 yesterday. 

The Association of British Travel Agents said the Government’s ‘stop-start’ quarantine measures were causing havoc and placing jobs at risk.

A spokesman added: ‘The re-start of travel has not gone as hoped for the industry and sadly businesses continue to be adversely affected and jobs are being lost at an alarming rate. 

‘As long as quarantine remains the principal strategy in the Government’s containment of Covid-19, the travel industry will continue to suffer. 

‘Given the rapid change in infection rates in different areas, it is vital the Government moves as quickly as possible to assess risk on a regionalised, not whole-country basis.’

Some 17 countries previously deemed ‘safe’ for holidays have had quarantine restrictions newly-imposed in the past month. 

Travellers risk a criminal record and £1,000 fine if they fail to abide by quarantine rules. Ministers say a total of 4,200 cases have been referred to police so far.