So calm and efficient, why can’t we do it like Iceland?
A FEW minutes after the stark beauty of Iceland’s volcanic landscape appeared through the plane window on Friday afternoon, we were walking through the corridors of Keflavik Airport. Soon after passport control, police were waiting to check our conditions of entry.
The process was simple, calm and efficient. Passengers had been told to fill out an online registration form before leaving London that asked for a mobile phone number, the details of who you would be meeting and where you would be staying – a ready-made track-and-trace system.
At the checkpoint, police looked at the barcode on passengers’ phones, which had been sent once the registration forms had been completed. They were then directed to a series of booths where coronavirus tests were being conducted – or waved through to customs if they had chosen to undergo a 14-day period of quarantine.
I had an exemption from the Icelandic FA for journalists covering the Iceland-England Nations League match in Reykjavik yesterday, but I was asked to take the test anyway. I was led to a booth where a man swabbed my mouth with a spatula and stuck what looked like a giant cotton-bud so far up my nose it made my eyes water.
It was over in about 30 seconds. The process from then onwards was efficient. I was in my hotel room in Reykjavik city centre seven hours later when my phone pinged. ‘You have not been diagnosed with Covid19,’ a text said. ‘Please help us trace Covid-19 by downloading the app.’
The next step for travellers who do not have an exemption is to stay in quarantine for five days. They are then summoned for a second test and if that, too, proves negative, they are notified within hours and are free to move around the country.
It is a tantalising glimpse of the way things could be in the UK. After I went to Lisbon for a Champions League match between Manchester City and Lyon last month, I flew back to Heathrow and walked through the airport unchallenged. I didn’t even have to show the form I had filled out before I left London
There was no hint of track and trace – moreover, I then had to quarantine at home for 14 days before I was allowed back to work.
The English system felt haphazard, inefficient and negligent. We are stuck with a process that feels like amateur night compared with the level of thoroughness I was greeted with in Keflavik.