Pakistan singled out as the origin of half of Britain’s imported virus cases

Whitehall worried that influx of Covid from Asia may affect UK hopes for air bridges to Europe

‘We can’t take people off the list because they might import cases from their former colonies’

HALF of Britain’s imported coronavirus cases originate from Pakistan, The Daily Telegraph understands, amid calls for tougher quarantine checks on arrivals from “high-risk” countries.

More than 65,000 people have travelled to Britain on 190 flights since March 1 from Pakistan, which is reporting 4,000 Covid-19 cases a day and has seen a new spike in the disease after easing its lockdown measures.

Most are thought to possess British passports.

Data from Public Health England showed 30 cases of coronavirus in people who have travelled from Pakistan since June 4, which is understood to represent half of the incidents of imported infection.

With up to two flights a day from Pakistan, there have been reports of some arrivals going straight to hospital and into intensive care. It has also been suggested that the influx has led to localised clusters.

Officials are understood to be worried it could lead to a backlash against Britain in Europe as the UK prepares to open air bridges.

British officials are concerned that countries such as Portugal may be importing cases from Brazil but does not wish to say so explicitly because of our own colonial links.

“We can’t take people off the list because they might import cases from their former colonies”, said a Whitehall official. “Diplomatically we have to rate [them] to see actual uncontrolled spread. Imagine if people said that about the UK with our links to the US. We’d be fuming.”

Bharat Pankhania, a quarantine expert at Exeter university’s medical school, said the Government needed to concentrate resources on screening individuals from “high-risk” countries rather than a blanket “light-touch” quarantine, where no one was tested or physically supervised in the community.

He said: “As soon as a country reaches a set threshold, then special screening and tests are done on all individual arrivals at the border. If they are staying in Bath, for example, then the local public health director is alerted and they are subject to on-the-door checks by his or her team.

“You also need to make clear that this is a serious issue if you are coming from an at-risk country, and increase the penalties for breaches, so that those who do, go to prison and/or get a £10,000 fine.”

Concerns that passengers from Pakistan were spreading the virus resulted in one of the world’s biggest long-haul airlines suspending flights from the country this week. Dubai carrier Emir- ates suspended flights out of Pakistan after 30 passengers on a June 22 flight to Hong Kong tested positive.

Etihad and Fly Dubai also suspended flights out of Pakistan.

This week, South Korea’s government temporarily banned most people from Pakistan and Bangladesh from entering after it recorded increases in coronavirus cases from those countries.

Ten cricketers from Pakistan’s national team who were expected to play three tests and three T20 matches over five weeks from July 31 in England this week tested positive for Covid-19.

British officials are understood to have repeatedly urged Pakistan to enact tougher controls on its flights as cases have grown.

Pakistan International Airlines, the national carrier, said it had been flying direct to and from the UK since early April. At first irregular flights were organised according to demand to repatriate British and Pakistani nationals, with up to a dozen trips a week, according to demand.

In the past week the airline resumed more regular daily flights to either London or Manchester.

A spokesman said passengers were screened in Pakistan with heat sensors and had to wear masks. Anyone recording a high temperature during screening was not allowed to board.

Officials estimate that at any one time there are 100,000 British nationals in Pakistan, most of them dual nationals. About 25,000 British nationals were repatriated from Pakistan between April 4 and May 13, almost all British Pakistani.

A government spokesman said: “The new health measures at the border are informed by science, backed by the public and designed to keep us all safe.

“We are seeing a high level of compliance and we expect this to continue as the vast majority of people will play their part to help stop the spread of this disease.”