Brits may holiday in Portugal by end of summer but France quarantine could hit 1million

BRITS could grab a quarantine free break to Portugal by the end of the summer.

Ministers are happy that cases in the holiday hotspot are now at a safe level.

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But a spike in cases in Europe will delay the green-light being given for another two weeks.

Whitehall officials do not want to signal the go-ahead to holidays on the Algarve only to have to swipe them if cases start to rise again.

The Sun understands that if cases remain low for the next few weeks, the destination will go on the ‘safe-list’.

A Whitehall source said: “Portugal has made a lot of progress but the process of for dropping quarantine is far more gradual, where we monitor progress in weeks rather than days.”

But officials are a long way off doing likewise for Spain after it was pulled from the ‘safe-list’ two weeks ago.

The UK Government acted after cases there reached 39.4 per 100,000 over a two-week rolling average.

New infections are being monitored in France, which has seen a rise in cases recently, with its average yesterday being at 24.2 per.

There are 1,585 scheduled flights to France from UK airports up until the end of August, with an estimated 264,000 passengers heading there by air.

It is thought more than a million Brits would be affected by any quarantine measures, with 400,000 there now, and another 600,000 planning to spend time across the Channel this month.

It is feared France could be next on the quarantine hit-list after Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned that ministers “won’t hesitate” to take drastic action if needed.

The French health authority reported cases of Covid-19 are up by a third in the last week.

Today, it reported 1,695 new infections — the highest daily increase for two months.

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