Study casts doubt over testing fears

AVIATION bosses have accused the Government of being 'flawed' in its claim that air passenger testing is ineffective.

A review of modelling by Public Health England disputes that tests on arrival might pick up only 7% of passengers with asymptomatic Covid infections and argues it would instead pick up 33%-63% of all infected passengers.

The study, commissioned by IAG, Virgin Atlantic, Heathrow, Manchester Airports Group, Airlines UK, IATA, and others, was carried out by economics consultancy Oxera and health data analytics company Edge Health.

It said the PHE paper is "based on a theoretical model and is not calibrated to real-world data" and "therefore fails to provide any real insight unto the relative risk inbound passengers pose to the UK population". See pages 29-31.