The UK needs quarantine for anyone coming from the Czech Republic and Switzerland.

For those traveling from the Czech Republic and Switzerland to the United Kingdom, self-isolation will be needed for a period of two weeks upon arrival, beginning on Saturday, 29 August.

The decision was taken by the UK authorities after the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England observed a substantial rise in the degree and pace of confirmed COVID-19 cases in both counties.

The Department of Transport and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, announcing the move in a press release, noted that the weekly incidence rate of COVID-19 in Switzerland has risen steadily over the past four weeks.

Between August 20 and 27 alone, a 19 per cent increase per 100,000 people was reported.

The situation is close to that of the Czech Republic, where the statistics have also risen.

"The data show that there has been a steady increase in the number of newly reported cases in the Czech Republic over the past three weeks, with a 25% increase from 1,723 between 14 and 20 August 2020 to 2,153 between 21 and 27 August 2020," the decision-making press release explains.

The exclusion from the list of safe countries from which arrivals do not need to be isolated by Switzerland and the Czech Republic follows the removal a week ago of Austria and Croatia from the same list.

Since 22 August, all arrivals from Austria and Croatia to the United Kingdom have been subject to compulsory self-isolation since Saturday, after Austria reported a 93 percent increase in the number of weekly detected cases per 100,000 citizens from 13 to 20 August, whereas the rate was much higher, 164 percent, for Croatia from 12 to 19 August.

In comparison, the government has restored Portugal to the list of safe countries, on the same day it removed Austria and Croatia. The authorities stated that, as a result of the decrease in the number of identified infections, Portugal was no longer a 'danger' country.

The number of all COVID-19 cases and per million population cases detected in all the aforementioned countries is currently as follows:

• Austria - 26,590 cases in total, 2,950 per million people
• Croatia- 9,192 cases in all, 2,241 per million people
• Portugal - 56,673 cases in total, 5,561 per million people
• Switzerland—41,346 cases in all, 4,772 per million people
• UK: 330,368 cases in all, 4,862 per million people