The UK Government is looking at options to reduce the 14-day quarantine period for travelers entering the country to around one week, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said Monday.
"It's one of the things we’d like to bring in as soon as it's practical to do it," he told LBC Radio on Monday.
Visitors arriving in the UK from certain countries are required to self-isolate for 14 days -- though the exact restrictions differ in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
"I think everybody understands how important the quarantine policy is. When we brought it in, there was a lot of noise, a lot of people saying this wasn’t necessary," Hancock said.
"But sadly if you look at the number of cases in India, Brazil, and now closer to home – in Spain and in France – people can see why we’ve had to bring that policy in."
Asked about the importance of reducing quarantine to help tourism, he said his focus was on working out a way to do so "safely, and that works, and that protects people in this country."