Holidaymakers in Portugal could be left with 12 hours to get home if Government announces quarantine

Holidaymakers in Portugal have been left in limbo as a quarantine announcement could leave tourists with 12 hours to get home.

Holidaymakers are braced for new travel restrictions as Portugal could become the latest country to be added to the UK-wide quarantine list.

Pressure is mounting on England to consider imposing quarantine rules on travellers arriving from Portugal.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a decision on whether to impose restrictions would be announced on Friday.

The seven-day coronavirus cases rate in Portugal is 22.7, compared with 14.2 for the previous week.

A seven-day rate of 20 is the threshold above which the UK Government has considered triggering quarantine conditions.

One family due to fly to Portugal this weekend now faces the prospect of a second holiday cancelled due to coronavirus restrictions.

Gary Hiles, 34, from Sunderland and his family originally booked to go to Alcudia in Majorca but were forced to cancel after Spain was removed from the list of exempt travel destinations.

They then rebooked to Portugal because the country had recently been added back to the air bridge list.

He said: "We booked in July 2019, it was supposed to be our first family holiday abroad for our children.

"We have an autistic son, who we've been trying to prepare him for the holiday, but now we don't know if we are going or staying. He keeps getting excited about going on a plane. He doesn't understand why our holiday may be cancelled."

Mr Hiles said he had been tracking the data on Portugal and didn't understand why Matt Hancock said a decision on the country would be delayed until Friday.

He added: "There's nothing stopping people from getting a test when we get back and if it shows negative, then where do we stand? It's all just one big mess. There's a lot the Government have got right throughout this, however the aviation side is a massive failure."

In recent weeks, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced changes to its quarantine exemption list on Thursday nights, with the new rules being imposed on Saturdays at 4am.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said a decision on whether travellers would need to quarantine when arriving from Portugal would be made on Friday.

He was unable to say whether someone could travel to Portugal on Friday without needing to quarantine on their return, when pressed on Sky News.

"The simpler answer is that we follow the data and we make these announcements in an organised way on a Friday lunchtime," he said.

"We are going to publish a further decision tomorrow having looked at the data and I'm not going to pre-judge that."