Scotland's 'ridiculous' hotel quarantine system under fire after eight-year-old wrongly detained

Scotland’s quarantine hotel system was described as “ridiculous” on Tuesday after two of the tiny handful of passengers taken into supervised isolation were sent home after being wrongly detained.

Chun Wong and his eight-year-old daughter Kiernan, who are moving to Scotland from the United States, were taken to a quarantine hotel on Monday and were prepared to spend 10 nights there after flying into Edinburgh Airport.

However, they were sent to their new home in Fife after less than a day because even though they had arrived from America, they had caught a connecting flight in Dublin, rather than flying into Scotland directly from outside of the British Isles.

It meant a major loophole in the Scottish system - whereby those travelling directly into Scotland by air have to quarantine in hotels but those arriving on connecting flights from within the Common Travel Area do not - applied.

South of the border, only those arriving from 33 “red list” countries have to spend 10 nights in hotel quarantine.

In Scotland, the requirement nominally applies to all international arrivals, although in practice a series of loopholes means the need to quarantine in hotels for those arriving from non-red list countries, which costs £1,750, is easily avoidable. Those flying into English airports but then travelling to Scotland by road or rail are also allowed to isolate at home.

Mr Wong and his daughter were among just seven people in Scotland taken to quarantine hotels on Monday, the first day that the system was operating.

Yesterday, only six people arrived on a flight from Doha into Edinburgh, with only three being taken to hotels with the remainder exempt from the need to quarantine in hotels. Last week, SNP ministers boasted that they had secured 1,300 hotel rooms, having block booked six hotels, to accommodate travellers.

Linda Bauld, professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said it was clear that the case of Mr Wong showed the system was not working.

"Clearly everybody listening will realise that it doesn't make sense,” she told BBC Radio Scotland.

"While I have huge sympathy for this family, just to emphasise, the fact that they've stopped for a few hours in Dublin means that the rules don't apply, that doesn't make sense to me from a public health perspective."

The Scottish Government said it was investigating why Mr Wong was detained. He claimed that he had been advised that he would have to quarantine, with widespread confusion over the Scottish rules and loopholes.

On Friday, Jeane Freeman, the health secretary, was unable to say whether someone in Mr Wong’s position - a person travelling from America to Scotland via Dublin - would have to isolate in a hotel.

Willie Rennie, the leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, said: "A screw up of this magnitude on day one will seriously risk public trust in this system.

"Tough talk is no use if it is impossible to deliver results. It's ridiculous for the Government to claim that they want travellers from all countries to quarantine when there are so many loopholes built into the system.

"In a system already full of exemptions and contradictions, it's imperative that travellers are correctly identified and appropriately directed."

Mr Wong, a health worker, is moving to Scotland to be with Kiernan's mum and his wife, Danielle, a dual UK/US citizen. He said he was relieved to be able to go home to Fife and did not feel angry at how he had been treated.

A Scottish Government spokesman said he would receive a full refund.

"We are looking into the circumstances that led to Mr Wong being wrongly advised he needed to book a managed isolation package and would like to thank the family for their patience,” he added.

"This is a very new system, being implemented at pace, and some initial challenges are to be expected.”