People travelling from France and Netherlands to self-isolate

France and the Netherlands will be removed from the list of destinations exempt from quarantine requirements due to an increased number of COVID-19 cases.

Aruba, Turks and Caicos, Malta and Monaco will also be removed from the exemption list.

The decision made by the Scottish Government, and also made by the devolved administrations in Northern Ireland and Wales as well as the UK Government, is to reduce the risk of the transmission of the virus by those travelling from these countries.

The public health measures will come into effect at 4am on Saturday, 15 August and will mean those arriving in Scotland from France, the Netherlands, Aruba, Turks and Caicos, Malta, and Monaco will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

The move comes after a 66 per cent increase in newly reported COVID-19 cases in France over the past week, and a 52 per cent spike in the weekly incidence rate per 100,000 people.

Meanwhile the Netherlands has also seen a steady rise over the past four weeks, and a 52 per cent rise in newly reported cases in the past week alone.

Even bigger spikes have been recorded in the Turks and Caicos Islands, Aruba and Malta.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “We have always been clear we are closely monitoring the situation in all countries and that we may need to take action to remove a country from the list of places exempt from quarantine requirements should the virus show a resurgence.

“These are not decisions which we take lightly but on the basis of the evidence it is important that we take action to suppress transmission of the virus and protect public health.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: “The government has made consistently clear it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including removing countries from the travel corridors list rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.”