How to quarantine when you arrive in England
What to do before and after you arrive in England, including staying at home and ordering coronavirus (COVID-19) tests.
You should follow separate guidance if you’ve been in a country where travel to the UK is banned (sometimes call the ‘red list’) at any point in the 10 days before you arrive in the UK. See the red list countries.
From 15 February onwards, everyone allowed to enter England from outside the Common Travel Area must:
- quarantine for 10 days
- take a coronavirus (COVID-19) test on day 2 and day 8 of quarantining
- follow the national lockdown rules
You should follow separate advice if you need to quarantine in:
What you must do before you travel
Everyone must:
- take a coronavirus (COVID-19) test and get a negative result during the 3 days before you travel
- book and pay for a travel test package, which will include COVID-19 tests to be taken on or before day 2 and on or after day 8 of your quarantine
- complete a passenger locator form with details of where you will home quarantine when you arrive and the travel test package booking reference number
Providing false or deliberately misleading information when filling out your passenger locator form is an offence punishable by imprisonment. You could be fined up to £10,000, imprisoned for up to 10 years or both if you do not provide accurate details about the countries you have visited in the 10 days before you arrived in the UK.
If you break the quarantine rules you may face a penalty of up to £10,000.
If you’re travelling from somewhere in the Common Travel Area and you have not left the Common Travel Area for the past 10 days, you do not need a test before leaving or to home quarantine and take tests after arriving.
Get a test before travelling
You must have proof of a negative coronavirus test to travel to England – this includes UK citizens. You must take the test in the 3 days before the service on which you will arrive in England departs.
For example, if you travel directly to England on Friday, you must take the test on the Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
See the jobs with travel exemptions to find out whether your job qualifies for an exemption and what that exemption covers.
Book your travel testing package
Everyone must book a travel test package – this costs £210. You must take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2 for variant surveillance and a test on or after day 8 to check that you do not have COVID-19.
Use the booking portal to book your travel test package (this is administered by CTM)
If you’re experiencing any difficulty booking through the booking portal, please phone +44 (0)1274 726424.
If you’re facing significant financial hardship as a result of this charge, there will be an opportunity to apply for a deferred repayment plan when booking. This is only available if you already receive income-related benefits, and you will be required to pay back your debt to the government in 12 monthly instalments.
You must not apply for deferred payment if you are not eligible. If you provide false information, or omit key information which has been asked for in your application, you will be committing fraud and liable for conviction.
You will not be able to leave quarantine until you have received both a negative result from your day 8 test and quarantined for 10 days. If you do not take the tests, you may face a penalty of up to £2,000.
If you test positive for either test you must quarantine for a further 10 days from the day you took the test – you will receive further advice alongside your test results.
If your test shows that you have a variant of coronavirus known as a ‘variant of concern’ you will get a further call and your contacts will be asked to be tested.
Provide details of where you will quarantine when you arrive (passenger locator form)
Before you travel to England you must provide your journey, contact details and the address where you will quarantine by completing the passenger locator form. You must do this within the 48 hours before you arrive.
You must provide a test package booking reference number to complete your passenger locator form.
You may be asked to show these details to immigration officers when you arrive. If you provide false or deliberately misleading information you may be fined or imprisoned.
Quarantine for 10 days after you arrive
When you arrive in England, you must travel directly to the place you’re staying and not leave until 10 days have passed.
The quarantine period starts the day you arrive in England and ends 10 days after the day you arrived. This period is necessary because it can take up to 10 days for coronavirus symptoms to appear.
If you’re travelling to England for less than 10 days, you will need to quarantine for the whole of your stay. You must travel directly to your place of quarantine when you arrive in England and directly from your place of quarantine to the port or airport when you leave. You should follow safer travel guidance and avoid public transport if possible. If you break the quarantine rules you may face a penalty of up to £10,000.
How to travel to the place where you’re quarantining
When you arrive in England, go straight to the place you’re staying to quarantine.
Only use public transport if you have no other option. If you do use public transport, wear a face covering that covers your nose and mouth (this is required by law unless you’re exempt) and stay 2 metres apart from other people.
If you have coronavirus symptoms, it’s important that you do not travel by public transport.
If you develop coronavirus symptoms when you’re travelling to England, you should tell one of the crew on your plane, boat, train or bus. They’ll let staff in the airport, port or station know, so they can tell you what you should do next when you arrive.
Long journeys to your quarantine accommodation
If you have a long journey within the UK to arrive at quarantine accommodation, you may be able to stop overnight in accommodation where you can quarantine yourself from others before continuing your journey.
Before doing so, you should check that the overnight stay is necessary and permitted under the national lockdown ‘stay at home’ rules. If so, you must quarantine and provide the address of your overnight stop on your passenger locator form in addition to your declared accommodation address.
Quarantining
This can include:
- your own home
- staying with friends or family
- a hotel or other temporary accommodation that is not a managed quarantine hotel
You must quarantine in one place for the full quarantine period, where you can have food and other necessities delivered.
You must quarantine at the address you provided on the passenger locator form.
You cannot have visitors, including friends and family, unless they’re providing:
- emergency assistance
- care or assistance, including personal care
- medical assistance
- veterinary services
- certain critical public services
You cannot leave the premises where you’re in quarantine. You cannot go out to work or school. You cannot visit family or friends who do not live in the premises where you quarantine. You must only exercise in your home or garden. You cannot leave your home to walk your dog. You will need to ask friends or relatives to help you with this.
You must not go shopping. If you need help buying groceries, other shopping or picking up medication, you should ask friends or relatives or order a delivery or ask for help from NHS Volunteer Responders.
NHS Volunteer Responders are available if you need help collecting shopping, medication or would like a telephone ‘check-in and chat’. Call 0808 196 3646 (8am to 8pm) to arrange support. You can arrange one-off support, or schedule more regular help while you’re quarantining.
You do not need to quarantine if your job is on the list of jobs that do not need to quarantine.
In England, you may also be allowed to leave your accommodation in exceptional circumstances. This includes purposes such as:
- accessing basic necessities like food and medicines where you cannot arrange for these to be delivered
- accessing critical public services including social services and services provided to victims (such as victims of crime)
- moving to a different place for quarantine where you can no longer remain where you are
There may be other exceptional circumstances which permit you to leave your place of quarantine. You will need to consider carefully whether your circumstances are exceptional circumstances that require you to leave your place of quarantine. It may be useful to seek advice from a medical or other professional to discuss your circumstances so that you can decide whether, for example, you have a health condition or a disability that would be seriously exacerbated if you were not able to leave the accommodation (and its outdoor areas) where you’re quarantining to take exercise.
Even if you have an exception, you must continue to follow the general restrictions that apply.
What to do if you get coronavirus symptoms
You should order a test if you develop at least one of these 3 coronavirus symptoms at any point:
- a high temperature
- a new, continuous cough
- you’ve lost your sense of smell or taste or it’s changed
If you develop coronavirus symptoms when you’re travelling to England, you should tell one of the crew on your plane, boat, train or bus. They’ll let staff in the airport, port or station know, so they can tell you what you should do next when you arrive.
Home quarantine: rules for the people you stay with
The people you’re staying with do not need to quarantine, unless:
- they travelled with you
- you or someone in the place where you’re staying develop symptoms of coronavirus
Avoid as much contact with other people as possible in your home to reduce the risk of transmitting coronavirus. You should stay in a well ventilated room with a window to the outside that can be opened, separate from other people in your home.
If you’re staying in a hotel or guest house, you must stay away from others who did not travel with you, so it’s important that you do not use shared areas such as bars, restaurants, health clubs and sports facilities. Stay 2 metres apart from other people staying there at all times.
Support to help you quarantine
Staying at home may be difficult, frustrating or lonely, but there are things that you can do to help make staying at home easier.
NHS Volunteer Responders are also available if:
- you need help collecting shopping or medication
- you’d like a friendly chat
Call 0808 196 3646 (8am to 8pm) to arrange support. You can arrange one-off support, or schedule more regular help while you’re quarantining.
Ending your quarantine early
You can take a test on your 5th full day of quarantine to see if you can stop quarantining early.
Read more about the Test to Release for international travel scheme.
You still need to take a test on or before day 2 for variant surveillance and on or after day 8 to check that you do not have COVID-19. Variant surveillance helps the government check if new types of COVID-19 are coming into the country.
Changing the place where you’re quarantining
You are not allowed to change the place where you’re quarantining except in very limited circumstances, including where:
- a legal obligation requires you to change address, such as when you’re a child whose parents live separately, and you need to move between homes as part of a shared custody agreement
- it’s necessary and permissible for you to stay overnight at accommodation before travelling to the place where you will be quarantining for the remaining period
If this happens, you must provide full details of each address where you will quarantine on the passenger locator form. If, in exceptional circumstances, you cannot remain where you’re staying, you can move to a new place to quarantine and you must complete a new passenger locator form as soon as possible.
Leaving quarantine
You will be able to leave quarantine when you have received both a negative result from your day 8 test and have quarantined for 10 full days.
You can also leave quarantine if you opt into (and pay for) an additional test at day 5 through the Test to Release scheme.
Once you leave quarantine, you must still follow the national restrictions that apply.
Circumstances not covered by this guidance
If you’re intending to travel to the UK in the next 7 days and facing a set of circumstances that are not covered by this guidance, please email your enquiry to dhsctesttrace.customerfeedbackteam@nhs.net.
Please make sure you include your date of travel.
Last updated 12 February 2021
