England's hotel quarantine system working smoothly, Hancock says

LONDON, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Britain's new COVID-19 hotel
quarantine system for arrivals from 33 "red list" countries
appears to be working smoothly a few hours after it was
introduced, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said on Monday.

The government has introduced a new demand that arrivals
from the 33 countries, which include Brazil and South Africa,
will have to pay to spend 10 days quarantined in a hotel room in
a bid to stop new variants of the coronavirus from entering the
country.

"As of 6.30, when I got my latest update, this is working
smoothly, we've been working with the airports and with the
border force to make sure everybody knows the process," Hancock
told Times Radio.

"It does appear to be going smoothly this morning."

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton; editing by
James Davey)