Good Morning Britain's Dr Sarah Jarvis clears up Spain quarantine rules for families

27 July 2020, 11:59 | Updated: 27 July 2020, 16:08

Dr Sarah Jarvis explains quarantine rules after Spain holiday

By Alice Dear

People have been questioning whether they will need to quarantine if someone they live with has returned from Spain.

This week, ministers removed Spain from the UK's safe travel list after fears of a second spike in the country surfaced.

Now, people returning to the UK from Spain will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

However, some families have been asking whether members of their households, who did not go to Spain, need to quarantine with them.

During Monday's Good Morning Britain, a caller asked Dr Sarah Jarvis: "If I quarantine after returning from Spain does my son, who lives with me, have to quarantine even though he wasn’t away from us?"

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The resident GP, who is filling in for Dr Hilary while he takes a break, explained that their son does not need to also quarantine for 14 days, but the rest of the family should be quarantining away from him.

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She explained: "If, for instance, you are contacted by the test and trace team, you have to quarantine if you’ve been in contact with somebody and you should ideally be quarantining away from the rest of the family, but they do not have to quarantine."

"You should be quarantining away from them. It is going to be a challenge, if you all live together, to quarantine."

A Government spokesperson announced the changes to travel advice around Spain on Sunday, saying: "The Joint Biosecurity Centre together with Public Health England has updated their coronavirus assessments of Spain based on the latest data.

"As a result, Spain has been removed from the lists of countries from which passengers arriving in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are exempted from the need to self-isolate.

"Protecting public health is our absolute priority and we have taken this decision to limit any potential spread to the UK.

"We’ve always been clear that we would act immediately to remove a country where necessary. ‘Both our list of quarantine exemptions and the FCO travel advice are being updated to reflect these latest risk assessments."

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