Brazil virus flights farce

OUR MINISTERS KNEW DAYS AGO ABOUT FRESH VARIANT FUELLING DEATH TOLL IN BRAZIL. YET ONLY NOW ARE THEY BANNING TRAVEL FROM THERE INTO BRITISH AIRPORTS

ALL travel from Brazil will be banned today to stop the spread of a new virus strain.

It came after Boris Johnson was criticised for being too slow to act.

He yesterday admitted being ‘concerned’ about the mutant Brazilian variant – which the Government has known about for at least four days – and raised fears it could be resistant to vaccines.

Experts fear it is similar to the highly contagious Kent and South African strains last month.

Amid a row over the Government’s response, the Prime Minister was accused by MPs of failing to immediately tighten the borders. MPs also questioned why new rules from tomorrow requiring all travellers to test negative before they enter the UK are being brought in ten months after the pandemic began. Other countries have had similar rules in place for months.

Home affairs committee chairman Yvette Cooper savaged ministers for failing to act fast enough. Questioning Mr Johnson at a hearing yesterday, she demanded to know why UK borders were not immediately shut to Brazil travellers after warnings of new strain.

She asked him: ‘Why aren’t you taking immediate action on a precautionary basis?’ Miss Cooper also criticised the quarantine system for being ‘ so much weaker’ than measures in dozens of other countries which include rigorous border testing. She said it meant arriv

‘Completely failed to get a grip’

als being allowed to board public transport to get to where they will self-isolate after landing, with few checks to see if people are quarantining.

Miss Cooper added: ‘ You give the impression each time that you just delay all of the difficult and uncomfortable decisions until the last possible minute and when so many lives are at stake, Prime Minister, is this the leadership we really need?’

Mr Johnson claimed ‘huge quantities of checks’ are being carried out to see if people are self-isolating.

Shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said: ‘Yet again this is the Government reacting to events when they have already reached a crisis. They have completely failed to get a strategic grip on this, leaving the door unlocked to the virus and worrying new strains.

‘Action has been woeful, leading to the virus being out of control.’

As of tomorrow, all international passengers coming to the UK will have to show a negative Covid-19 test before they enter. Passengers – including homecoming Britons – will have to get a test up to 72 hours before they travel. Border Force guards will carry out spot checks and anyone flouting the rules will be fined £500.

It is understood ministers will today consider imposing a complete ban on flights and visitors for the whole of South America to tackle the Brazil variant. This would mirror beefed-up restrictions brought in for South Africa due to its mutant strain.

The Brazilian variant could pose a massive setback to attempts to return the UK to normality.

Ravi Gupta, professor of microbiology at Cambridge University, said that it may be better able to beat both our immune defences and vaccines.

Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, told ITV’S Peston show there was no evidence any of the variants led to more severe disease. It is not yet known if the Brazilian strain is present in the UK. Brazil has had one of the world’s highest Covid death tolls – 205,000.

Vaccines minister Nadim Zahawi told the Commons a new jab could be manufactured in 30 to 40 days if a variant of the virus is found to be less responsive to those available.

The Department for Transport published small print of the rules requiring all passengers entering the UK to show a negative test only late last night – shortly before they are due to kick in.

But they won’t be enforced until Monday due to a ‘grace period’ brought in after a backlash from

Tragic: A gravedigger in Brazil and, left, air travellers in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo the travel industry. Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, chairman of the Airport Operators Association, said: ‘It’s horrendous.

‘We need to support travellers who are facing the issue of needing to get home.

‘The industry wants to deliver the safest way to get home, but it needs that guidance and the detail in good time.’ Paul Charles, the chief executive of travel consultancy The PC Agency, said: ‘There is not enough clarity around the type of tests allowed, leaving consumers panicking about whether they will be let into the country without a fine, because they have the wrong documentation. Policy on the hoof never works.’

Up to 100,000 Britons are esti

mated to be abroad. Many went in mid- December before the third lockdown.

Experts last night questioned about why Britain had not brought in testing at the border, despite dozens of countries around the world having had it in place for months. Professor Lawrence Young, a molecular oncologist at the University of Warwick, said: ‘You could argue it’s too little, too late. We should have been doing this ages ago.

‘If you look at where successful lockdowns, in terms of returning back to normality, have happened, that’s where people have closed their borders. The horse has bolted.

‘It is hard to understand why we haven’t been more stringent about international travel and why we’re doing testing now and didn’t pay as much attention to it last March. Testing has to be a really important part of this.’

A Department for Transport spokesman said: ‘We are aware of this new variant and are considering urgent measures to reduce the spread to the UK.’