Thousands of Covid cases can not be traced
Almost 2,500 people who arrived in the UK and tested positive for coronavirus over three months could not be properly traced because they gave authorities the incorrect contact information.
Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) figures revealed that – between February 14 and May 10 – 2,473 people failed to correctly complete their registration details on passenger locator forms, which must be filled in by law by all those entering the country.
It is not clear whether any had been prosecuted, but 52 of those who tested positive had a variant of concern.
The failure to fill in the forms means public health officials may not have been able to ensure those who had tested positive had quarantined correctly and therefore did not spread the virus within the UK.
Three of those who had tested positive and could not be traced had travelled from what were at the time red-list countries.
Yvette Cooper, chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select
Committee, said: "This shows there are still real gaps in the Government's Covid border measures.
"For thousands of Covid cases to effectively be lost after they have arrived in the country is a real problem – and even more troubling when those include new variants that the Government is worried about."
A Government spokesperson said: "Our top priority has always been protecting the public, and we have rigorous checks at the border and Border Force is working to ensure that it has the right staffing levels to check that passengers are compliant with border health measures including having completed passenger locator forms."