Young kids’ travel test exemption
FAMILIES desperate for a summer holiday abroad will be spared forking out for a coronavirus test for children aged 11 and under before they fly home to Britain.
But parents will still face paying £120 for a test kit for each child over that age – piling costs on to the price of a break overseas.
Foreign travel from the UK is currently banned and will not restart until May 17 at the earliest.
Ministers believe strict testing is needed to reopen international travel without jeopardising the success of the vaccine scheme.
But industry bosses fear the huge costs of highly accurate polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests will mean many families will shun holidays overseas and opt for staycations instead.
Under the Government’s Global Travel Taskforce blueprint, a traffic light system will be launched to grade the risk of certain countries.
Passengers arriving from “green list” nations will have to take one post-arrival PCR test on day two after they return. Those coming back from “amber list” countries must take two postarrival tests on day two and day eight, and self-isolate at home.
Arrivals from “red” nations must pay £1750 for a 10-night stay in a Government-approved quarantine hotel and take two post-arrival tests on day two and day eight. Transport Secretary Grant Shapps last week admitted private PCR tests were “too expensive” and costs should be “driven down” to about half what they are now. He vowed to strip “profiteering” firms he believed were charging too much from the Government’s list of approved testing providers. He has also said pre-departure tests could be replaced with cheaper, instant “lateral flow” tests. But a similar move for post-arrival tests is not thought likely.
Meanwhile, measures to curb the spread of Covid may be in place for months. New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group chairman Professor Peter Horby said: “There is going to be a need for continuing some of the measures we know are not very restrictive but do have a benefit like hand washing, potentially ensuring good ventilation in indoor spaces, and not having overcrowded indoor spaces with poor ventilation.”