Testing could end ‘quarantine roulette’

Sage scientists’ advice to ministers emerges as 160,000 tourists in France face chaos

HOLIDAYMAKERS returning home from “red list” countries should be tested to end the “quarantine roulette” that has dogged the summer, the Government has been told.

Around 160,000 travellers faced a scramble to return from France yesterday, as they were given just over 24 hours’ notice by the Government to leave the country or face having to quarantine for 14 days. Thousands more face the prospect of cancelling breaks or risk missing weeks of work.

Going on holidays could also mean children, who have already missed months of school, being stuck in quarantine when the new term starts.

Holidaymakers were originally due to have until 4am tomorrow to return, but Scotland, backed by Wales and Northern Ireland, pushed for the deadline to be brought forwards 24 hours.

MPS and industry figures called for a testing regime for those returning from abroad to end the chaos, as it emerged that the Government was told by scientists two months ago that testing travellers could help avoid a blanket quarantine.

Minutes from the Sage scientific advisory group show it asked Public Health England to consider a double-testing policy that would involve travellers being checked at the border, and again five to eight days later. The plan would have allowed people to finish quarantine within one week, but although the Government indicated to The Daily Telegraph it was considering reducing quarantine to 10 days, no action on testing had been taken.

Heathrow Airport said tourists were being forced to play “quarantine rou- lette”. “Testing could provide an opportunity to safely reduce the length of quarantine in certain circumstances, protecting both the health and wealth of the nation,” a spokesman said.

“The UK needs a more sustainable long-term plan for the resumption of travel than quarantine roulette.”

David Davis, the former Brexit secretary, said: “Sage’s advice is woefully inconsistent with the claim from ministers that testing only detects a minority of cases. If they were advised this in June then this is what they should have done in June, rather than take this ineffective blanket approach.”

He called on the Government to adopt a more regional and “nuanced” approach to quarantine depending on the Covid-19 rate. While some regions of France, including the Riviera, have high virus rates, in many areas the levels are lower than in Britain.

Henry Smith, the Tory chairman of the future of aviation group of MPS, said time was running out to get testing in place.

Experts questioned why the spare testing capacity could not be used to check travellers returning to the UK.

Prof Karol Sikora, Buckingham University’s dean of medicine, said: “Test on arrival, and then some time after to be sure. Even at a cost. Why not? The capacity is there, it’s silly not to use it.”

However, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, who was forced to quarantine after his own holiday in Spain, told Today on BBC Radio 4 there “had to be a cut-off ” and that holidaymakers had gone abroad “knowing that there was a significant risk”.

Boris Johnson, the Prime Minister, who will be holidaying in Scotland next

week, has encouraged others to take staycations.

As well as France, the additional countries from which travellers must now self-isolate for 14 days due to rising cases are the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks & Caicos and Aruba.

The Sage minutes show that experts believed double-testing would pick up more cases, help spot problem routes, and ensure people were quarantining.

On arrival, all travellers are required to complete a health declaration form and it is up to the Border Force and the regional public health authority to ensure people adhere to the rules.

Priti Patel, the Home Secretary, previously said there had been a high level of compliance. Yet most recent Home Office figures reveal that just nine fines were issued at the border since quarantine restrictions were introduced and the most recent police figures indicate that just one person was fined. Lucy Moreton of the ISU, the union representing Border Force officials, said: “For lots of people who are on holiday and are only just learning that they will have to go into quarantine, this is going to be very difficult. They will just not be prepared to go straight into quarantine for 14 days.”

Government sources said people would be required to organise food deliveries while on holiday as they would be expected to go into quarantine as soon as they arrived back in Britain.

Linda Bauld, a professor of public health at the University of Edinburgh, said: “Quarantine is a blunt instrument and the problem is that people break it.

“There are alternatives. The key one is testing travellers on arrival. A more effective system, in my view, would involve a second test some days later, which would reduce the quarantine period from two weeks to one week.”