Image source, PA Media

Michael Allsopp cut short his Corsica holiday by two days to get back to the UK in time to avoid the new 14-day quarantine rules coming into effect at 04:00 BST on Saturday - but was told to isolate anyway by UK Border Force.

The 52-year-old from Peterborough had been on the Mediterranean island with his 12 year-old son. The pair caught the 21:00 Eurostar from Lille on 13 August.

However, on arrival at St Pancras, London, he says he was told to self-isolate because the train had originated in Brussels.

Michael said he has looked on the government and Eurostar websites and “can’t find anything to back up what we were told”.

Quarantining for two weeks will mean Michael has to take more time off from his job as a train guard.

He said: “I’m extremely annoyed. I did cut our holiday short so that we could avoid quarantine and to get all the way back to England to be told we had to quarantine anyway. I’m a bit miffed.”

Image source, Getty Images

Jet2 has announced it is planning to operate its scheduled programme of flights to Bergerac and La Rochelle, after UK quarantine measures were imposed on France from Saturday.

The airline said customers who no longer wish to travel to these destinations can rebook with no admin fee.

A spokesperson for the carrier said: "We are not planning to operate to any other destination in France until October, and we are of course reviewing the situation very closely.”

The company said it does not do package holidays to France and it does not fly to Malta, which was also added to the UK quarantine list. There are no Jet2 flights to the Netherlands until October.

On 1 August, the airline announced it would refund customers on holiday in Spain who had been asked to fly back to the UK early, following a decision to suspend all holidays and flights to destinations in mainland Spain.

Image source, EPA

As the UK adds more countries – including France and Malta - to its quarantine list, the president of the World Travel and Tourism Council said she was “deeply disappointed” that thousands of Britons have had their holidays ruined.

Gloria Guevara said while public health should remain the top priority, the move “will crush what little confidence there is left in the fragile travel and tourism sector”.

She said: "The UK clearly lags behind other countries, which have shunned quarantines in favour of comprehensive programmes of testing for everyone departing and arriving back into their respective countries.”

Ms Guevara said international coordination and a programme of testing for anyone who wants to go on holiday are “crucial in order to rescue three million jobs in the UK alone".

Meanwhile, Tim Alderslade, chief executive of trade body Airlines UK, called it "another devastating blow" to the travel industry, which is already reeling from the worst crisis in its history.

He said: "Having the political will to move to a sub-national approach to quarantine, in addition to a testing regime for arriving passengers so that those testing negative can avoid having to self isolate - which other countries like Germany have already implemented - is urgently needed."

He added that weekly changes to quarantine rules on a national level "have proven so disruptive to airlines and passengers”.

Image source, Reuters

Sally Freeman is one of many Britons racing to return from the Netherlands and France by 04:00 BST on Saturday, when new rules come into force requiring travellers to quarantine for 14 days.

The 30-year-old and her husband, from Cambridge, are currently driving through Belgium on their way to the Channel Tunnel after cutting short their holiday with family in Zeeland in the Netherlands to meet the deadline.

Civil servant Sally said she was “still in my pyjamas” when she booked a Eurotunnel ticket after a friend called to alert her, before she “flung everything in the car in about 10 minutes” and set off.

She said: “I think the government has made a very poor decision here. Everyone coming back at the weekend now has to cram into one day."

There should have been 48 hours' notice, she said, so that people planning to travel next week could have made the decision whether to go or not.

“I am expecting total chaos at the tunnel and it'll be the fault of the government," Sally said.

"They have created this chaos with everyone scrabbling to get home.”

Image source, Getty Images

Eurotunnel has said that all car-carrying trains are fully booked until Saturday morning.

In a tweet,, external it added there was no more ticket availability and warned against travelling to the terminal without a ticket for today.

Image source, Getty Images

Earlier, UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told BBC Breakfast it was "very important that people do quarantine" when they return from affected countries.

"Everybody returning to the UK, no matter where from, doesn't matter whether you're in a travel corridor country or a quarantine country, must at this stage fill in a passenger locator form," he said.

"That is the law and you may well find that people call up to check where you are, and you'll be breaking the law if you were not quarantining, if that was a requirement for the country you'd come from."

Read more about the rules here.

Image source, Getty Images

If you're driving through France on the way to, or from, another country, you might be wondering how new government rules affect you.

According to the latest guidelines, external, if you drive a private vehicle through France and you do so without leaving your vehicle, or letting anyone else get in on the way, there's no need to self-isolate.

But if you do have to make a stop during your journey, you'll need to self-isolate if someone new gets into your vehicle or if someone leaves the vehicle, mixes with other non-passengers, and gets in again.

Other rules are in place for transit vehicles like coaches, ferries, trains and flights.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has told the BBC that the government is taking a "practical approach" to the new France travel quarantine rules.

He added that the decision was taken based on scientific advice following rising numbers of Covid-19 infections across the Channel.

Image source, Supplied

Paul and his family were hours away from setting off for a family holiday to France when the quarantine measure was announced.

With the trip to Béziers in southern France now cancelled, Paul says he thinks politicians have taken the decision in part to boost the British economy.

"I am embarrassed by the actions of this country," he tells the BBC.

"It makes no sense to treat everywhere in France in the same way.

"They obviously just want to keep us here to spend money in the UK”.

Raissa Ioussouf
BBC News, Antananarivo

Image source, AFP

Hospitals in Madagascar have been struggling to cope with a surge of Covid-19 cases, while the president has been promoting an unproven product he says can cure the disease despite the World Health Organization (WHO) warning against using untested remedies.

Cases have quadrupled in the past month on the Indian Ocean island, with more than 13,000 infections and 162 deaths from coronavirus, which has spread to all but one of its 22 regions.

Despite the spike, President Andry Rajoelina stands by the herbal concoction called Covid-Organics, which was launched to great fanfare in April.

It is produced by the Malagasy Institute of Applied Research from the artemisia plant - the source of an ingredient used in a malaria treatment - and other Malagasy plants.

The drink has been marketed as a prevention and remedy - and for the last four months has been offered to children at school.

Read more here.

Image source, EPA

It's not just France seeing soaring travel prices ahead of new UK quarantine rules.

The Netherlands was also taken off the travel corridor list after a rise in coronavirus infections there.

Prices for seats on non-stop flights between Amsterdam and London have soared well above the average for this time of year, according to a review of Google Flight data.

The cheapest seat on Friday will set passengers back £327 - with the most expensive on British Airways' last available flight costs £645 for the 85 minute journey.

Meanwhile, the only remaining journey on Stena Line's ferry route between Hook of Holland and Harwich on Friday is sold out.

Image source, Shallcross family

Sallyanne Shallcross from Somerset and her family are on holiday in the Pyrenees in south-western France.

"We absolutely knew there was a real risk of quarantine when we travelled but the truth is, we still felt confused about the right thing to do," she told the BBC.

The family had booked the holiday before the pandemic began and Ms Shallcross said that there had not been specific guidance against going.

"Air bridges [to other countries] were promoted, getting the economy going and firing up the engines of our country were all messages given by the government in the run-up to the summer holidays and so with no refunds available from our campsites either, here we are."

Ms Shallcross told the BBC that her children would now miss the first week of the new school term.

"Going home early isn’t on the cards for us, there has been an influx of Britons attempting to travel this morning, websites are crashing and we really wouldn’t have travelled at all if quarantine wasn’t achievable when we got home.

"Dettol spray, sanitiser and staying in the outdoors is how we continue to manage here. Online grocery delivery slots, gardening and an additional week of painful homeschooling is how we will manage at home.

"It’s a shame, quarantine is not what we wanted but know that it is important to do and feel lucky to have had a change of scenery before we face the grim predictions of a restricted winter."

Image source, Getty Images

One in five prisoners at Indian-administered Kashmir's largest prison have tested positive for coronavirus, authorities have said, according to Reuters news agency.

VK Singh, the region's director of prisons, said 102 of 480 inmates had tested positive at the jail in Srinagar, and preparations were being made to move some prisoners.

"We are taking extra care and all new entrants are being tested and then quarantined for two weeks," he told Reuters.

More than 20,000 cases have been reported in Kashmir valley - 5,500 of them current. The region has been subject to a cycle of virus-related lockdowns since late March. It is also wracked by a decades-long insurgency over a border dispute with Pakistan.

On Friday India reported more than 60,000 new cases for the third day in a row. It is the world's third worst-hit country, with more than 2.4 million cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University. More than 48,000 virus-related deaths have been reported.

Image source, Getty Images

With A-levels results day out of the way, students across the UK will have a better idea of their future plans.

But what will the university experience be like for "freshers" at what should be one of the most exciting times of their lives?

Swansea University in Wales said plans to keep students safe include "bubbles" among flatmates, which means a ban on parties or having people over to stay.

"We're adopting the same principle that the Welsh Government has advised in terms of family household composition," said Ceri Jones, who looks after the university's accommodation for 4,000 students.

"When the new students arrive, we'll be classifying them and their flatmates as 'family households' or 'student bubbles' so the students will be able to interact with their flatmates.

Read more here

Image source, Getty Images

PA news agency has been speaking to travellers at London's St Pancras station who were supposed to be heading to France on the Eurostar today.

Sonia, a 39-year-old dentist, said she had cancelled her four-night trip to Paris after finding out about the new quarantine measures this morning.

“It’s not worth it to go out and have to self isolate. With my work I can’t do the procedures from home," she said.

“We were too late to get the news, we’re just finding out here but it’s better than on the train.

“We’re looking at going to Cardiff and checking trains now, but the weather is changing a bit.”

'Not a disaster'

But lawyer John Strange, 60, from Reading said he would continue with his 10-day trip to the French capital and work from home on his return.

He said: "It's not a disaster for me but it seems for many people it will be, particularly those with young families, it's going to be catastrophic.

"I'm sure many will have to cancel their plans and have to accept all that pain and cost that goes with it."

Image source, Getty Images

Seven African countries will begin administering coronavirus antibody tests next week, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says.

The testing is part of an effort to understand how widespread the infection is on the continent.

"Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria, Morocco are the first set of countries that committed to it," head of Africa CDC John Nkengasong said in a weekly briefing on Thursday.

He said the continent had conducted 9.4m coronavirus tests so far, closing in on the 10m target set in collaboration with member states.

Dr Nkengasong added that a continental strategy was being developed to set up a consortium of clinical trials and then begin the procurement and financing of vaccines.

The continent has so far recorded 1,084,904 coronavirus cases, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Alexandra Fouché
Journalist, BBC World Online

Image source, Géraldine Allot

Géraldine Allot is a primary school teacher currently visiting her family in Embrun in the French Alps; she is trying to adjust her travel plans as a result of the UK's quarantine announcement.

“I am disgusted,” she told the BBC. She and her family are having to change all their travel plans. She needs to be at school meetings on 1 September ahead of the new term.

“We have had to change all our plans: we are trying to get our money back for hotel bookings and change appointments, like the vet’s appointment for our dog [ahead of crossing into the UK].

“It will be very, very tense [to make the changes]. The situation is very stressful. It affects my holidays. I had planned my holidays to see my family whom I hadn’t seen for a year. The fact that I am obliged to go back is affecting my mental health.

“It is cutting off a big chunk of my holidays. I am not coming home for pleasure, I’m having to come home out of professional obligation. It also affects my children who had things planned when we came back. And my husband is having to take extra leave as we are now having to travel back during the week and not at the weekend.

“This quarantine is an obstacle to individual freedoms.”

Image source, Getty Images

The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell in coronavirus hotspots in June and July, according to data released by NHS England.

Cases of coronavirus have been rising nationally since the middle of July, and even earlier in Leicester.

More of these cases are among young people, who are less likely to become seriously sick.

Read more here.

Image source, Reuters

Cross-Channel train operator Eurostar says it still has available seats on services between Paris and London on Friday - ahead of the imposition of quarantine measures in the UK.

A review of prices on the Eurostar website showed the cheapest seat was priced at £209.50 for a one-way journey on Friday afternoon.

The final service with availability was the 17:13 CET service - with seats available from £269.50.

A spokesperson said the operator will "continue to monitor demand and adapt our timetable accordingly to ensure that those that need to travel can continue to do so at a safe distance apart".

Meanwhile, air fares are more than six times higher than normal for flights from Paris to London on Friday, with the cheapest British Airways tickets being sold for £451 and Air France seats costing £531.

Google Flight data on Friday morning showed just three flights between the Paris and London had available seats throughout the rest of the day.

There are an estimated 160,000 Britons currently in France.

Image source, Getty Images

Health authorities in the Australian state of New South Wales have been heavily criticised for "inexcusable" mistakes in their handling of an outbreak aboard a cruise ship, the Ruby Princess.

In March, passengers aboard the Ruby Princess were allowed to disembark in Sydney despite evidence that there were sick people with coronavirus symptoms on board.

At the time, the group of 2,700 people - who had travelled from New Zealand - were labelled as low risk. But in the weeks after disembarkation, more than 900 people on board the Ruby Princess later tested positive for the virus and 22 people died.

An inquiry into the incident was launched in April and it has now issued a report. It said the decision to identify passengers as low risk was "unjustifiable" and delays to test results amounted to "a serious failure".

But the report made few recommendations, saying health authorities recognised mistakes were made.

"It is inappropriate and unhelpful to make recommendations to experts that in truth amount to no more than 'do your job'," it concluded.