Lack of airport tests aiding spread: scientists

Government scientists have warned of a “developing situation” over people bringing coronavirus into the UK after travelling abroad and returning home without being tested.

People who travel overseas are required to quarantine for two weeks on their return unless they have visited a country on the official list of nations considered low risk for Covid-19.

But poor compliance with quarantine and the lack of testing at airports and other borders mean infected travellers can spread the virus when they get home, even if they test positive and self-isolate later.

Experts on the disease modelling subgroup of Sage, the government’s scientific advisory committee, warned that while imported infections were a small proportion of UK cases, they still posed a threat.

In a statement dated September 2, but released in a bundle of Sage documents yesterday, the expert group concede that testing at borders was unlikely to prevent returning travellers from starting fresh outbreaks.

But the measures could provide valuable surveillance for inbound infection and help remind people of the need to quarantine, they say.

According to the report, the modelling operational subgroup, known as SPI-M-O (the scientific pandemic influenza group on modelling), is “concerned about the developing situation around the importation of infection from people arriving in the UK”.

The document goes on to warn that “whilst this is a small minority of infections in the UK it poses a threat”.

Speaking to MPs on the parliamentary science and technology committee this week, Lord Bethell, the minister for innovation, said work on testing arriving travellers was ongoing.