The first international travellers required to isolate at quarantine hotels have begun arriving for their stay at Heathrow Airport.

White coaches carrying a handful of people pulled up to the Radisson Blu Edwardian hotel shortly before 9am.

One woman, who said she had come from Zambia, got off a coach at the side of the road and confirmed she was about to start quarantine.

Asked how she felt about the prospect, she replied: “I’m not happy, but you have to do it.”

Men in face masks and hi-vis jackets were present in the hotel car park and by the entrance as the coaches arrived.

Two third of social care staff have been vaccinated against coronavirus, Matt Hancock says.

Matt Hancock has said there is “some way to go” before lockdown is eased, as ministers are to begin reviewing coronavirus restrictions in England.

The health secretary stressed the government is awaiting key data on how successfully vaccines reduce transmission after more than 15 million people across the UK received their first dose of a vaccine.

The successful rollout of the vaccines will increase pressure from the Conservative backbenches for the Prime Minister to set out a swift easing of the lockdown when he sets out his “road map” on 22 February.

Mr Hancock told BBC Breakfast: “We are taking those decisions this week, so we will be looking at the data, looking at the success of the vaccine rollout and how far that has reached and its impact in terms of protecting people, looking at the number of cases and critically, looking at the number of people who are in hospital and the number of deaths – those two factors are vital.”

He added: “Right now, as of today, at the latest count there are still over 23,000 people in hospital with Covid – that’s more than in the April peak – so we’ve still got some way to go, but we are looking to set out that road map on Monday.”

Asked on BBC Breakfast whether the government wanted the current lockdown to be the last, Matt Hancock said: “Absolutely, we very much hope so.”

The health secretary said: “Having a sustainable exit, so lifting the measures in such a way that can be sustainable and we don’t have to have another lockdown, that is obviously an important part of our considerations.

“For me, making sure that as we lift measures, we do so carefully and cautiously to make sure that we don’t have to put them on again, that is at the core of the judgment we have to make.”

“A symphony of beige and brown: exactly what you want for a brief overnight stay at an airport hotel,” Simon Calder writes.

“The Heathrow airport Novotel delivers. But for a 11-night stretch in quarantine, I sense the narrow and sombre spectrum may grate just as much as the regular ‘plink, plonk’ signalling the arrival of the lift opposite.”

Our travel correspondent spent the night at the Novotel before switched to its role as a quarantine hotel.

“One night is quite enough on Isolation Row,” he writes.

Governments in the UK and Scotland have set out different policies for hotel quarantine for arrivals from abroad.

Simon Calder takes a look at how it will work:

From today, travellers arriving from 33 “red list” countries to England will be required to quarantine for 11 nights in a hotel close to one of four airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, London City or Birmingham – or the business jet hub of Farnborough in Hampshire.

All international arrivals to Scotland must quarantine at hotels near Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow airports.

At the same time, the testing regime for anyone arriving in the UK has been stepped up. All travellers must provide evidence of a negative test in the 72 hours before departure to Britain, then book tests on days two and eight.

Simon Calder, our travel correspondent, has more:

Lockdown measures in England will start being reviewed.

The prime minister will this week begin considering how restrictions in England may be eased before setting out his “roadmap” out of lockdown on 22 February.

He is already under pressure from some Tory MPs to push ahead amid frustration at the damage that is being done to the economy and the impact on people’s lives.

In the meantime, Tom Batchelor has taken a look at when lockdown may end:

Additional reporting by PA