WALES had to take action against the "rising tide of infections" coming in from the Greek islands, health minister Vaughan Gething has said.

Last night it was announced people returning to Wales from Portugal, Gibraltar, French Polynesia and six Greek islands would have to quarantine for 14-days from today, Friday

Speaking to the BBC's Today programme this morning, Mr Gething said: “I have a particular issue that just underpins everything – adds to that (Joint Biosecurity Centre) advice here in Wales – was flights from Zante earlier in the week, when I introduced advice to people from Zante and testing on the first two days and then testing again a week later.

“That was because in the week before we had over 30 cases from four different flights, two of which had landed in England.

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“On that flight which landed in Cardiff on Tuesday, there are over 20 direct cases – that’s more than 10 per cent of that flight.

“Seeing a rising tide of infections coming in from that list of islands, having that direct experience in Wales and very clear advice about the higher risk to UK public health from the JBC, I did not feel that there was any course of action other than taking some form of action.

“It’s not for me to explain why others haven’t done that, but I’m very clear that we’re following that advice and keeping Wales safe.”

Asked about the different approach taken by England's transport secretary Grant Shapps in Westminster, he said: “I’m very content this is the right thing to do, it’s in line with the risk assessments we received from both the JBC and Public Health England, but also the reason why I’ve excluded the Azores and Madeira… is they do have a different rating but they also have testing on entry, so they’re able to understand before people get there.”