THE majority of international passengers arriving in Scotland are avoiding mandatory hotel quarantine by flying into England before travelling north, according to new figures.
They show 80% (1999 people) arrived in Scotland via English airports at the end of February compared with 27% (3848 people) at the beginning of the year.
The figures were released as eight more deaths of people who had tested positive for Covid in the previous 28 days were recorded in Scotland.
Scottish Government statistics also show that 639 new coronavirus cases were reported in the last 24 hours.
A total of 23,284 new tests for Covid-19 reported results – meaning that there was a positivity rate of 3.4%. There are 479 people in hospital in Scotland confirmed to have Covid-19, with 38 in intensive care.
The new flight figures have been released by Scottish Labour after a parliamentary question on the number of internal and international arrivals at Scottish airports since the beginning of 2021.
Both Westminster and Holyrood have tightened restrictions on people flying into the UK but the Scottish Government and many scientific advisers believe the former’s policies are not strict enough.
Westminster has introduced a “red list” which means passengers from some countries such as Brazil have to pay for quarantine in selected hotels.
However it means travellers from these countries can travel into the UK via other countries to avoid hotel quarantine.
The Scottish Government has introduced mandatory hotel quarantine for international arrivals from all countries on the grounds that it is the only way to lessen the risk of the virus spreading and the introduction of new variants.
Passengers flying from elsewhere in the UK or Ireland to Scotland can self-isolate at home when they arrive, as long as they have not previously been to any “red list” countries.
Since the mandatory quarantine was introduced in Scotland, the overall number of international arrivals in Scotland has dropped from 14,432 for the week beginning January 4 to 2930 on the week beginning February 22, according to Scottish Labour’s figures.
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