By Bryant Hevesi For Daily Mail Australia and Aap
Published: 21:05 GMT, 5 January 2021 | Updated: 21:47 GMT, 5 January 2021
23
View
comments
There are urgent calls for compulsory testing for passengers returning to Australia as the highly infectious UK mutant coronavirus strain arrives in the country.
Insurance Loans Mortgage Attorney Credit LawyerWestern Australia Premier Mark McGowan has led the calls after confirming three people in hotel quarantine in Perth have the more transmissible variant.
NSW, Victoria and South Australia had all previously recorded cases in returned overseas travellers.
'I think it would be a great safety mechanism to ensure that people coming out of many countries around the world have a test and confirm they are negative before they board a flight with hundreds of other Australians,' he said.
Travellers to Australia should be tested for coronavirus and return a negative result to board a flight, Western Australia Premier Mark McGowan says. Pictured, a returned Australian entering hotel quarantine in Melbourne
'And I think that safety measure should be implemented. To me, this is a no-brainer.'
The UK variant is believed to be up to 70 per cent more infectious than the original, causing havoc in England and prompting British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to order a new national lockdown until at least mid-February.
Victoria has also called for flight crews to not only be tested but quarantined across the nation.
Eight flight crew have tested positive for coronavirus out of the 1096 who have arrived in Victoria over the past fortnight - double the rate of other returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Victoria Police Minister Lisa Neville said other states should be following their lead with
