The WHO said today that the Balkans are the new hotspot for coronavirus, and one of the consequences will be that in Croatia it could be on the UK’s quarantine list as of tomorrow.
The WHO said the Balkans have been a ‘concern of ours since early June’ because of an increase in case numbers as it urged the region to impose additional measures to ‘nip transmission in the bud’.
The comments are likely to fuel fears that ministers will add Croatia to the Government’s travel ‘red list’ before the weekend.
Dr Catherine Smallwood told a WHO press conference this morning: ‘The situation in the Balkans has been a concern of ours since early June when we started to see cases increase and it’s been very much a sub-regional hotspot over the summer period.’ She added: ‘We really need communities to take this on board, take the adequate steps both at a country level, in terms of the basic contact tracing, case identification and isolation and testing the systems that need to be in place.
Croatia has seen an upsurge in coronavirus cases over the past week and yesterday the Adriatic nation posted numbers which almost matched its highest point in August. Any move to impose quarantine rules on Croatia is likely to wreak havoc with the travel plans of thousands of Britons.
