Holidaymakers may be forced to video test

HOLIDAYMAKERS may have to video themselves taking a Covid test after day-two PCR tests for double-jabbed travellers are scrapped at the end of next month.

Government officials are consulting the industry over ways to check that holidaymakers returning to England have completed the cheaper lateral flow tests that will replace PCRS in October.

Travel industry sources said it meant holidaymakers would have to carry out a swab in person on site at a registered provider or through a video consultation where the traveller completed the test watched by a trained member of the test company’s staff.

“You could have a simple mail-order system but the problem is that you have no verification whatsoever. You only have to look at social media to see videos of people faking it,” said a source.

Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, said yesterday that the Government aimed to introduce the new testing regime for vaccinated travellers “as quickly as possible” in time for half term at the end of October but refused to give an exact date.

Airlines UK called for day-two PCR tests to be scrapped on Oct 4, the same date that pre-departure tests are to be axed for double-jabbed holidaymakers, so that families could plan for the October half term without any continued uncertainty.

Under the new regime, PCR tests, which cost an average of £70 and have to be taken on or before day two back in England, will be replaced by lateral flow tests, which cost around £40 though some firms are charging up to £150.