Shapps returns from Spanish holiday and insists he can’t rule out quarantine being extended to other countries
WESTMINSTER Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has said he “cannot rule out” that other countries could be included under the UK’s quarantine measures.
He told reporters on his return to the UK from Spain yesterday that the decision to require travellers arriving in the UK from Spain to isolate for 14 days was the “right thing to do”.
He said: “We absolutely have to act the moment we get the information and that’s exactly what happened with Spain as we saw and as we’ve seen over the weekend where there was over 6,100 cases – the highest since the peak in March over there.
“It was the right thing to do and it’s why the whole of the UK did (it) at the same time.
“I can’t therefore rule out other countries having to go into the quarantine as well.”
Mr Shapps said it was “essential” the UK Government acted when it did to require that travellers from Spain to the UK isolate for 14 days.
He said: “I very much understand (the frustrations), it obviously had an impact on me and my family and I’m very, very sorry and upset for the thousands of Brits who are either away or perhaps even haven’t managed to go away this summer as well to Spain.
“But it’s absolutely essential we acted when we did, it’s why all four nations of the United Kingdom acted together and the figures since have turned out to justify that action.
“We have to, I think, have a clear message and make sure that we act by adding entire countries to that list for the time being.”
He said the exclusion of certain Spanish islands from the measures taken by the UK Government had been considered.
The Transport Secretary said: “We did have a look at whether certain islands could be included (on the list) and not others.
“Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, was very clear with us that he was concerned about the data, we’d seen how the data had come very fast forward in Spain in 20, 48 hours, it had gone up by 75%.
“It had doubled in just a few days. He was concerned to see what was happening in the islands and that’s why we make it a whole-country approach in these things.”
His colleague Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden said there was “no viable alternative” to the UK’s quarantine policy for international arrivals.
The Cabinet Minister said testing passengers at airports is not a “silver bullet” allowing restrictions to be eased.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer said arrivals from high-risk countries
should be tested twice for coronavirus over a number of days to potentially reduce their quarantine period, while the boss of Heathrow Airport declared the UK “needs a passenger testing regime and fast”.
The UK reimposed the selfisolation requirement for people arriving from Spain on Sunday, making the announcement just five hours before the change in policy came into force.
Mr Dowden told BBC Radio 4: “We are not at the point where there is a viable alternative to the 14-day quarantine.
“There is a real risk here – the virus is spreading around the world, it’s rising rapidly around the world.
“We need to ensure that the measures we’ve taken in the UK, which have been very difficult, to keep this virus under control, do not go to waste because we allow cases to come in from elsewhere.”
He said coronavirus can “incubate over a period of time”, adding: “There’s not a silver bullet of just testing immediately at the border.”
During a visit to Falmouth, Sir Keir told reporters “we do support measures being taken to quarantine” but pointed to evidence suggesting the duration could be reduced with multiple tests.
He said: “There’s some evidence it could be shortened to 10 or nine days but that depends on really effective testing and that is why we have pushed the Government so hard on testing.
“There’s the capacity to test, the Government needs to use that to test on arrival and then after a short interval because if that period of 14 days can be brought down to eight, nine or 10 then obviously there’s a huge benefit in that.”
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye said the airport is “ready to go in two weeks” if the UK Government allows tests to be used to ease restrictions.
He said: “We’ve started to mobilise on that so we can be ready as fast as possible. The speed really depends on the Government and them putting the legislation in place to allow people to come out of quarantine early if they have passed two tests, and deciding whether the second test has to be after five days or eight days or some other time.”
Heathrow is working with travel assistance company Collinson and ground-handling firm Swissport to develop an airport testing regime. Passengers would be charged around £140 per test. Public Health England and the Department of Health and Social Care have met with Collinson to discuss its proposal.