Travelers to England can face 10 years in prison under new COVID-19 policy

Any traveler who visits the England from a "red list" country faces steep fines a possible 10-year prison sentence, reports said.

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock was referred to the new policy that came into effect on Monday.

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"We are coming down hard on people who provide false information on the passenger locator form," he said, according to the Evening Standard. "Anyone who lies on the passenger locator form and tries to conceal that they have been in a country on the ‘red list’ in the ten days before arrival here, will face a prison sentence of up to ten years."

Hancock said that from Monday, residents of the U.K. and Ireland arriving in England from the places on the government’s "red list" will have to purchase a "quarantine package" that costs $2,400 per person and covers accommodation, virus testing and other items.

There are 33 countries, including South Africa, Portugal and all of South America, from where travel to England is effectively banned largely because of concerns over new variants of the coronavirus.

Hancock made headlines last week when he said in an interview that the 2011 movie "Contagion" helped to influence his approach on how best to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine in the U.K.

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The Independent reported that the U.K. recorded 12,364 new cases and 1,052 deaths on Tuesday. There have been 113,850 total deaths tied to the virus.

The Associated Press contributed to this report