Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
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FLIGHTS BANNED Government delays tests for arrivals to UK FLIGHTS BANNED Portugal & South America flights banned
AFTER months of dither and delay over Covid tests for people travelling to the UK, No 10 has now pushed back bringing them in for another three days.
Curbs due to be in force from 4am today would have meant anyone arriving here, including British nationals, would need a negative result up to 72 hours before leaving their country of origin.
But boat, train or plane travellers will now be given a “period of grace” before the regime comes into effect in the early hours of Monday – sparking fears of more needless deaths.
That is 349 days since Covid was first identified in Britain last January.
Countries such as France and Spain enforced mandatory tests on people arriving to their shores months ago.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps announced the “period of grace” – but others claimed the delay was due to Government failure to prepare for the new system.
Labour leader Keir Starmer said: “Yet again we’ve got a Prime Minister and a government that’s late, slow and even now, at the 11th hour, they’re putting testing back another few days.
“I think people will be bewildered and they will feel that we’re exposed. There’s a gap in our defences.
“We can’t go on like this with delayed decisions not being made in a competent way.”
Travel to the UK from Portugal and South America is banned from today as ministers try to prevent a mutant Brazilian strain of coronavirus taking hold in
Britain. Experts fear it could be at least as infectious as the variant identified in Kent, which is thought to be up to 70% more transmissible than the original strain.
Urgent tests are under way to see if vaccines will work against the Brazil variant. Other leading figures joined Mr Starmer’s criticism of Boris Johnson’s decision to delay the curbs on travellers from other countries. The Shadow Home Secretary Nick
CHECK DELAYS Arrivals at Heathrow yesterday
Thomas-symonds said: “This is yet another example of government incompetence, lurching from one crisis and rushed announcement to another. The failure to put in place an effective policy on testing before entry and a quarantine system that is checking only one in 100 people is putting lives at risk.”
Home Affairs Select Committee chair Yvette Cooper branded the further delay “shocking and incompetent”. She said: “Other countries, including France and Spain, already introduced this months ago. But the
People will be bewildered and they will feel we’re exposed in our defences KEIR STARMER ON JOHNSON’S LATEST COVID INCOMPETENCE
Government left it late and then failed to get the guidance done in time, even though there are real and immediate concerns about new variants circulating from South Africa and Brazil that could undermine the vaccine programme.”
Travel consultancy PC Agency chief executive Paul Charles added: “This saga is yet another lesson to government that it takes time to implement major changes to border controls and they can’t be rushed through.”
The block on arrivals from Portugal and South America affects Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.
British and Irish nationals and others with residence rights are exempt but they must self-isolate for 10 days, with their households.
Direct passenger flights to England from Argentina, Brazil, Cape Verde and Portugal were also axed.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the Portugal ban was needed because of its “strong travel links with Brazil”.
The PM’S spokesman said: “We’ve implemented a grace period over the weekend until 4am on Monday so passengers can have a little bit more time to ensure they can get access to tests that meet our requirements.”
Around 2,925 people are being treated in hospitals in England for Covid.