TRAVELLERS coming to Scotland from any country will be subjected to mandatory hotel quarantine, in a bid to tackle new strains from entering the country.

The significant ramping up of restrictions, announced in Holyrood yesterday by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, is tougher than the arrangements due to come into force in the rest of the UK, where only those arriving from 30 “high-risk” countries are expected to quarantine.

Sturgeon told MSPs: “The firm view of the Scottish Government is that in order to minimise the risk of new strains coming into the country, managed quarantine must be much more comprehensive.

“I can therefore confirm today that we intend to introduce a managed quarantine requirement for anyone who arrives directly into Scotland, regardless of which country they have come from.”

IN FULL: Nicola Sturgeon's statement to MSPs about extending Covid lockdown

The First Minister also said that she could not “unilaterally” impose such restrictions on people landing elsewhere in the UK and travelling to Scotland, but hoped the other administrations would work with the Scottish Government to reduce the number of people doing so.

The UK Government is coming under increasing pressure over its plan for a limited quarantine.

Yesterday it emerged that scientists had previously warned ministers that only a mandatory hotel quarantine could prevent new strains entering the country.

Two weeks ago, the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) told Downing Street that “geographically targeted travel bans” would not be enough to stop the arrival of new strains.

In minutes from a meeting of Sage on January 21 – obtained by The Times – the scientists said: “No intervention, other than a complete, pre-emptive closure of borders, or the mandatory quarantine of all visitors upon arrival in designated facilities, irrespective of testing history, can get close to fully preventing the importation of new cases or new variants.

“Reactive, geographically targeted travel bans cannot be relied upon to stop importation of new variants due to the lag between the emergence and identification of variants of concern, as well as the potential for indirect travel via a third country.”

It comes as door-to-door “surge testing” of 80,000 people is underway in eight postcodes in England in a bid to find and contain the new South African variant.

READ MORE: Nicola Sturgeon says Covid lockdown will remain unchanged until end of February

Sturgeon yesterday told MSPs that five cases of the South African variant have been found in Scotland – though all had recently travelled from the country.

It’s thought that at least 11 of the 105 cases of the variant found in the UK are people who caught virus through community transmission.

In the Commons yesterday, Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the Government wanted to come down on the new variant “hard”.

In other worrying news, Public Health England has found 11 examples of the UK virus variant picking up the E484K mutation, which may lessen the effectiveness of vaccines.

Professor Calum Semple, a member of Sage, told the BBC’s Today programme: “The mutation of most concern, which we call E484K, has also occurred spontaneously in the new Kent strain in parts of the country.”