UK. The UK government has said it is moving closer to a regime for inbound travellers that combines shorter periods of quarantine with airport testing for COVID-19. The aviation industry has put pressure on authorities to reduce mandatory 14-day quarantining for arrivals from certain states.
In a statement to the House of Commons today, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said: “Testing will not capture asymptomatic travellers due to the long incubation period. However, quarantine combined with testing is more promising. We are working on the practicalities of using testing to release people [from having to self-isolate] earlier than 14 days. It cannot be just about testing on arrival. We are working on reducing quarantine periods.”
Having considered regionalised systems for international travel corridors to and from the UK, Minister Shapps also announced a new “islands policy”. This will permit travellers from islands, whether independent or part of larger states, access to the UK without the need for quarantine, assuming that they have lower levels of cases than the UK.
He said this was one step towards a regional approach, avoiding the need to place entire countries on the quarantine list because of localised outbreaks.
He said: “For the first time we have the data and capacity to add and remove specific islands from quarantine while still providing maximum protection to the UK public.” A condition is that there are direct flights from the UK or through quarantine-exempt territories.
A Heathrow spokesperson said: “We welcome the Transport Secretary’s announcement that testing to shorten quarantine is under active consideration by the government and that airbridges to islands will now be instated where appropriate. If introduced, these vital policy changes would show the government understands how critical the restoration of air travel is to this country’s economic recovery. The government needs to build on these developments and show global leadership to establish Common International Standards for testing before flight.”
Heathrow Airport and other aviation stakeholders have regularly called on government to introduce testing at airports as an alternative to mandatory quarantining.
