US joins the travel ban on UK arrivals without test

JAPAN and the US yesterday joined the growing list of countries demanding any arrivals from the UK must test negative for Covid-19 to be allowed in.

Washington said that from Monday anyone flying in from Britain has to have been tested within 72 hours of departure.

The move follows the emergence in the UK of a new, more infectious strain of the virus.

It had already led to more than 50 countries banning flights. Some, such as Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Cyprus, subsequently announced plans to allow some travel if passengers can provide evidence of a pre-flight negative test.

Yesterday Japan has closed its borders to British air travellers after it emerged that five arrivals from the UK have tested positive the new strain. All five have been quarantined. Japanese nationals can return home from the UK but must have already made a booking and provide proof of a negative test within 72 hours of departure.

The US move represents a U-turn by Donald Trump’s administration.

The President had been preparing to lift the current ban on travellers from Britain but health authorities announced all airline passengers arriving from the UK must test negative before flying. Because of restrictions in place since March, air travel to the US from the UK is already down by 90 per cent.

Boris Johnson is facing fresh calls to ramp up general and in-airport testing capacity to enable passengers to travel abroad.

Heathrow Airport CEO John

Holland-Kaye wrote to the Prime Minister calling for urgent plans for pre-departure testing.

‘This should be an extraordinary measure until the travel bans have been relaxed,’ he said

Such a model would involve taking a lab-processed PCR test within three days of departure, followed by a rapid test – which can give results in less than an hour – at the airport before take-off.

Mr Holland-Kaye urged Mr Johnson to give the green light to rapidtesting technology for passengers ‘to add an extra layer of protection’.

He added: ‘This country is a trading, island nation reliant on its doors being open to connect with markets across the world.

‘That is why I have been calling for a pre-departures testing regime as the basis for a common international standard to safely keep borders and economies open – the choice does not have to be between public health and the economy, testing can deliver for both.

‘A previously successful UK industry that was ranked third in the world is reeling with tens of thousands of jobs at stake. Please help me protect that role and those jobs.’

He also called for plans for the rollout of vaccines to be shared with businesses so they can prepare for when normal life starts to resume.

Baroness McGregor-Smith, chairman of the Airport Operators Association, said: ‘From the passenger perspective you need to have confidence your flight is going to go and that you are going to arrive safely in another country and that the rules when you get to the other country are also not going to be too restrictive on you. We absolutely have to have a testing regime that is world class for all our UK airports.’

The Daily Mail’s Get Britain Flying Again campaign has also been calling for testing capacity for travellers to be ramped up.