Source · Select Committees · Home Affairs Committee
Recommendation 49
49
Border quarantine restrictions are likely to remain in place for some time, particularly if there...
Recommendation
Border quarantine restrictions are likely to remain in place for some time, particularly if there is now emerging agreement that cases of COVID-19 could increase in the winter months. The UK’s approach to its borders will have to become more flexible in order to respond rapidly to the contours of the pandemic. We recommend that the Home Office, in coordination with the Department for Transport and Department for Health and Social Care, investigates urgently the viability of introducing widespread and targeted tests at the border, as in Iceland, Hong Kong or South Korea. Now that testing capacity in the UK has increased, the Government should be ready to learn from other countries and should examine what role testing or screening could play, including the ability to target particular flight routes. We agree with the Government that a testing and tracing system alone is not currently enough to address the importation risk from overseas travel, especially from high-prevalence countries like Brazil and the USA. However, the Government should look at international examples and develop testing further. It should assess what role testing could play alongside quarantine and travel corridor measures. This could require close coordination with airports and others to access flight and route-specific information over and above what is readily available. (Paragraph 227) 84 Home Office preparedness for COOVDD19 (coronavirus): management of the borders
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
The Government has not yet endorsed the use of testing for passengers arriving in the UK as a means to avoid the 14-day self-isolation period. This is due to the long incubation period of the virus, which means there is a significant risk of false negative results when testing asymptomatic people without any isolation period. Measures including temperature screening, health validation forms and medical certificates have been proposed, considered and discounted on the basis that they are not effective or reliable in accurately identifying or rapidly screening for COVID-19. There is no clear single screening measure which could differentiate travellers with COVID-19 likely to transmit diseases within the UK. 10 Home Office preparedness for COVID-19 (coronavirus): management of the borders: For example, temperature screening would lead to high ‘false positive’ and ‘false negative’ rates and would not detect those who are asymptomatic, nor those who are symptomatic but do not have a fever (30% of confirmed cases do not have a fever on admission to hospital and occurrence of fever in community patients is often <10%). Furthermore, screening at a single point in time is ineffective, even in those who do have a fever, but may not have one at the time they go through airport security. This is especially the case when paracetamol or other anti-pyretic drugs are used. However, we continue to keep all measures under review, and, as we have done to date, we are working across Government to consider whether testing could form part of future health measures at the border, including reducing the number of days that a traveller would have to self-isolate as announced by the Global Travel Taskforce on 7th October 2020.