Airline travellers could be screened on arrival in UK

Sam Meadows Amy Jones TRAVELLERS flying to the UK may have to be screened before entering the country, the Health Secretary has suggested.

Earlier this week, Matt Hancock said that more than 100,000 people were flying into the country each week without being screened, and insisted that health checks would do little to halt the spread of the virus.

However, yesterday he suggested that, should the situation change, then precautions may have to be taken when travellers arrive in the UK. These could include screenings or a period of selfisolation.

It is understood that there are not currently plans to introduce screening at airports as experts feel it would not be effective in detecting cases.

Mr Hancock was giving evidence to the health committee on the Government’s handling of the outbreak.

Asked by Yvette Cooper why there was no guidance asking people travelling into the country to self-isolate, he said: “I’m advised by the epidemiologists [that] it is not an epidemiologically significant route of transmission in the UK because the current incidence is high.

“Of course, if we succeed in getting the incidence of transmission lower and much lower, which I hope we will, then you have to ask the question of how to protect the UK from people who have been in a place where that incidence of transmission is much higher.”

Public Health England said temperature checks at airports would not be introduced as they hold little clinical value and that they could pick up as few as 50 per cent of cases.

It said airlines had been operating “enhanced monitoring” since January.

This included in-flight messages encouraging passengers to report any illnesses which would then be passed on to staff at the arrival airport to allow them to respond.

Major airports said they were working closely with Public Health England and following the latest guidance. Several had introduced social distancing at border control and ramped up cleaning as part of a range of measures.

Gatwick has closed its North Terminal, while Heathrow has closed one of its runways.