Holidaymakers will now have to quarantine upon return from several more countries from this coming Saturday.

Anyone who is returning from Austria, Croatia, Switzerland and Trinidad and Tobago from 4am on Saturday, August 21 will have to self-isolate from home for 14 days.

It comes after a significant rise in the number of positive coronavirus cases in each country.

The Scottish Government announced the measures on Friday afternoon.

Failure to comply with the requirement to quarantine may result in a fine of £480.

They also confirmed that Portugal will be added to the list of destinations where travellers will be exempt from the requirement to quarantine.

Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “We cannot emphasise enough that if people choose to travel abroad, they must be aware that quarantine requirements may change while they are away. The same can be said for the rules within the country or territory people are travelling to. If people do travel from any country that is not exempt from the requirements, they will be required to quarantine for 14 days on return, please check the Scottish Government website for more information on what this means.

“Indeed, wherever people have travelled from – an exempt country or not – they must complete a Passenger Locator Form and provide it to Border Force officials. Failure to do so can also result in a fine since this, along with any failure to self-isolate where required, poses a significant risk to wider public health across Scotland.”

“We continue to closely monitor the situation in all parts of the world and assess the scientific evidence. We remain in regular discussions with the other three governments in the UK and base decisions on a shared understanding of the available data. However, we will not hesitate to take the action we consider necessary to safeguard public health in Scotland recognising, that the level of risk across the four nations may lead to different decisions.

“As I have said previously, we do not make these decisions lightly, but suppressing the virus and protecting public health is vital.”