‘Banning flights and screening arrivals will not stop spread of virus’
BRITAIN is not banning flights from Italy or screening passengers as the measures do not slow the spread of coronavirus, England’s chief medical officer has said.
Prof Chris Whitty said the action did not halt the spread of the virus in Italy, one of the first countries to impose such measures on passengers from China after the outbreak was first flagged.
His comments came as the Government faced criticism for taking “halfhearted” measures by not quarantining and screening passengers returning from northern Italy, which went into a and a nationwide quarantine yesterday after partially locking down the country on Sunday night.
Prof Whitty’s comments were supported by Sir Patrick Vallance, the Government’s chief scientific adviser, who described screening passengers’ temperatures as not “an effective measure”.
More than 60 flights have been allowed into Britain from northern Italy since Sunday, as the number of Italian diagnoses hit almost 10,000 yesterday.
Easyjet and British Airways started cancelling some flights but commercial passenger planes were still landing in the UK from there. The latest advice to UK tourists from the quarantined area was to self-declare to cabin crew while in the air if they had any symptoms, after which they would be screened by a health team before disembarking.
However, advice for other passengers returning from northern Italy yesterday was the same as for those coming back from stricken areas such as Hubei province in China, and Iran; that was to self-isolate for two weeks whether or not exhibiting symptoms.
At a press conference with the Prime Minister yesterday, Prof Whitty and Sir Patrick were asked why the UK had not taken “more aggressive” measures on flights from northern Italy.
Prof Whitty said: “It is important to remember Italy was the first country in Europe to ban flights from China and they also looked at airport screening. As you see – and this is not cause and effect
– that has not been a reason to slow down the epidemic in that country.”
Sir Patrick said: “Temperature screening at an airport doesn’t really have much effect. It is worth noting that in countries that instituted it very early, some of the first cases that came through that screening weren’t detected in the screening and then popped up. Some of those [countries] have stopped doing that now, so that isn’t an effective measure.”
Yesterday, Rory Stewart, the former MP and international development secretary, condemned the Government’s response as “half-hearted”, adding there was no justification for not quarantining passengers from Italy.
When the virus first emerged, Britain quarantined all passengers returning from Wuhan for two weeks.
Meanwhile, Public Health England said it would be printing posters to provide clarity about the measures passengers from Italy should take when arriving at ports and terminals.
And Ryanair yesterday said that it would suspend flights to and from northern Italian airports from today until Thursday, after it was criticised for initially continuing flights to and from the stricken region.