Quarantine will be devastating blow to Britain’s revival
THE end of the coronavirus nightmare appears to be in sight. As the death rate plummets, the spectre of fear is giving way to the embrace of freedom. With the lockdown easing, and the economy spluttering into life, the journey back to normality has begun.
But instead of encouraging this welcome trend, the Government is in real danger of undermining it. A looming obstacle on the path to recovery can be found in ministers’ illconceived, ill-timed plan to impose quarantine on travellers to Britain. From June 8 arrivals, including returning Britons, will have to self-isolate for two weeks, regardless of symptoms. Those who breach this regulation face fines of £1,000.
Government loyalists portray this crackdown as a bold step that will protect the public from a renewed spread of the virus.
But in reality, it will inflict devastating harm on Britain while doing nothing for health. This bizarre move is draconian and ineffectual. At the very moment Britain and Europe are waking up from artificially induced comas, the Cabinet has decided to tranquillise a large section of our fragile economy for no useful purpose.
Home Secretary Priti Patel justifies this by declaring the country “owes it” to the virus victims to avoid a second spike in infections. “We will suffer if we get this wrong,” she added. But the truth is the Government has got it badly wrong. Quarantine might have made sense when the first Covid-19 cases arose in January, but nothing was done.
ALMOST 24 million people arrived in the first three months of this year with hardly any checks. Incredibly, right up to the start of lockdown in late March, three flights a week landed from Wuhan in China where the outbreak began.
The imposition of quarantine now is a classic example of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted. Such a step is not only far too late medically, but is also disastrous economically. There is a fundamental contradiction.
On the one hand billions is poured into support for businesses. On the other, they want to take a wrecking ball to Britain’s commerce and tourism, a vital industry that employs 3.8 million people and generates £146billion a year.
It has been estimated that, by deterring travellers, quarantine could cost the British economy at least £650million a year.
The renowned hotelier Sir Rocco Forte warns that small family businesses who find it a struggle to survive will be hit hardest. At the same time Britons going overseas, whether for work or holidays, will find their travel plans wrecked, by the self-isolation requirements on their return and retaliatory impositions of quarantine. That will mean more havoc in the travel and aviation sectors, already teetering on the edge.
The mighty aero engine maker Rolls-Royce has announced a cut in its workforce of 8,000, while 12,000 jobs are to go at BritishAirways.
To mitigate this calamity, the Government promises to lessen the rigour of quarantine by creating so-called “air bridges” or “international corridors” with countries that have low rates of infections.
Currently under negotiation, these bilateral links could encompass most of Europe, North America and North Africa. Ministers have also drawn up a long list of people to be exempted, including healthcare professionals, emergency workers, and agricultural staff. But such pledges of dilution only emphasise how impractical the scheme really is. They will make it even more confusing and unenforceable.
Indeed, the half-baked initiative is already a farce. Arrivals will be able to go shopping, change accommodation and use public transport, which renders selfisolation meaningless. But then, that is typical of British officialdom, which has a disgraceful record in upholding the integrity of border controls.
ONCE famously condemned as “unfit for purpose”, the Home Office presides over a shambolic immigration system that allows in more than 650,000 new arrivals a year and operates a quasi-ferry service for people smugglers across the English Channel.
The quarantine plan smacks of the worst kind of gesture politics, designed purely to give the illusion of firm action. In fact, there are suggestions the idea was concocted in Downing Street in a desperate attempt to distract attention from the care homes crisis.
It is time for a rethink. The nonsense of quarantine should be replaced at air terminals and ports by an effective testing regime for all arrivals, backed up by new technology like thermal scanners.That would be a far better way to safeguard our health – and the economy.
‘Home Office operates a quasi-ferry service for people smugglers’