Furious travel experts warn SAGE demands for isolation for all UK arrivals will ...

Furious travel experts warn SAGE demands for isolation for all UK arrivals will ...
Furious travel experts warn SAGE demands for isolation for all UK arrivals will ...

Travel industry chiefs have slammed Sage proposals to impose compulsory quarantine on all arrivals to the UK and force them to take pre-departure Covid tests regardless of whether or not they've been vaccinated.

The Government's expert panel warned that current travel curbs were allowing 'significant' numbers of infected people from abroad to slip through the cracks.

Currently, fully vaccinated people coming into the UK need to take a PCR test within the first two days of returning to the UK. There is nothing stopping them taking this as soon as they land and getting a result on the same day, releasing them from isolation in hours.

According to leaked minutes of an emergency meeting about the so-called 'Omicron' variant held on Monday, more than 30 scientists advised that this might not give enough time for the virus to incubate. They also called on Ministers to bring in day five and day eight tests.

The Prime Minister has come under pressure from Opposition MPs to further tighten border controls after yesterday imposing requirements for arrivals to self-isolate until they get a negative PCR test. Labour's shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper today said it was 'totally unacceptable' for the Government to ignore its own scientific advice.  

However, travel industry leaders called the advice 'an overreaction'. Warning of a jobs bloodbath, they said that the policy if implemented 'would destroy inbound travel to the UK for the foreseeable future'.

Paul Charles, CEO of the travel consultancy The PC Agency, told MailOnline that the sector 'has been used as a punchbag throughout the pandemic'.

'Adding to the existing restrictions in place would be wrong at this time, bearing in mind scientists have not yet reached conclusions on whether the new variant is in any way a threat or not,' he said. 'The travel sector has been used as a punchbag throughout the pandemic and consumers have lost some confidence in talk of future restrictions. Let's see whether this variant is one to worry about before implementing measures which put off people further from booking. Talk of quarantine is already having an impact on confidence. ' 

Henry Smith, Tory chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on General Aviation, said the restrictions 'would be devastating for the travel sector and throw into doubt the jobs in that industry'.

'I think it's an overreaction to a variant that initially at least appears to be less virulent than other strains,' he told MailOnline. 'We are going to have to come to the realisation that we are going to live with variants for the rest of our lives and we cannot go into a wild panic about them. We cannot continue to have these rolling closures of the economy.'

Dr Steven Freudmann, the former President of ABTA – the Travel Association added: 'Surely if the vaccine works, it works.' 

The panel, chaired by chief medical officer Professor Chris Whitty and chief scientific adviser Sir Patrick Vallance, also warned that Britain should brace for a 'potentially very significant wave with associated hospitalisations' this winter and that the variant may require a 'very stringent response' – in a nod to a possible extension of Covid restrictions. 

A Covid testing centre sign at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London on November 28, 2021

A Covid testing centre sign at Heathrow Terminal 5 in London on November 28, 2021

In total 22 cases of the Omicron varaint have been detected in the UK. The nine in Scotland are linked to one event. The 13 in England are all linked to foreign travel

In total 22 cases of the Omicron varaint have been detected in the UK. The nine in Scotland are linked to one event. The 13 in England are all linked to foreign travel

Currently, fully vaccinated people coming into the UK need to take a PCR test within the first two days of returning to the UK. There is nothing stopping them taking this as soon as they land and getting a result on the same day, releasing them from isolation in hours

Currently, fully vaccinated people coming into the UK need to take a PCR test within the first two days of returning to the UK. There is nothing stopping them taking this as soon as they land and getting a result on the same day, releasing them from isolation in hours

SAGE scientists have called for testing requirements for vaccinated arrivals to be ramped up immediately. (Pictured: BA flight takes off from Heathrow)

SAGE scientists have called for testing requirements for vaccinated arrivals to be ramped up immediately. (Pictured: BA flight takes off from Heathrow)

Boris Johnson leaving 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament

Boris Johnson leaving 10 Downing Street to attend Prime Minister's Questions at the Houses of Parliament

New Covid restrictions in England in force

New restrictions on compulsory facemasks, testing and travel in England were published on Monday night and came into force at 4am on Tuesday.

FACEMASKS  

People must wear facemasks in the following places:

Public transport; Retail shops; Beauty salons; Hairdressers; Banks; Post offices; Takeaways; Estate agents; Veterinary clinics; Taxis; Driving instruction cars.

Those caught flouting the restrictions will be fined £200 for a first offence, which will double on each subsequent offence up to a maximum of £6,400.

Schoolchildren are being asked to wear facemasks in communal areas but not classrooms. Teaching unions have called for masks to be extended to lessons. 

TRAVEL 

All travellers returning to the UK must take a PCR test and self-isolate for 10 days until they receive a negative result. 

Anyone who breaks the self-isolation law without a 'reasonable excuse' faces a fine of £1,000, rising to £10,000 for repeat offenders and serious breaches.

A number of countries in Africa were added to the UK's red list last week. They are:

Angola; Botswana; Eswatini; Lesotho; Malawi; Mozambique; Namibia; South Africa; Zambia; Zimbabwe.

SELF-ISOLATION

All contacts of anybody who tests positive for the so-called 'Omicron' variant must self-isolate – regardless of their age or vaccination status. 

This has sparked fears of a return to the 'pingdemic madness' of the summer, when a million healthy pupils were forced to stay home because of the Test and Trace system. 

Anyone who breaks the self-isolation law without a 'reasonable excuse' faces a fine of £1,000, rising to £10,000 for repeat offenders and serious breaches. 

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Responding to criticism the Government insists it is making 'balanced judgements on scientific advice it receives, No 10 has insisted. 

Asked if ministers had ignored the guidance, the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'At all times we take account of any clinical advice we receive, and then we need to make a balanced judgement on what is right.'

He said the Government had 'acted swiftly' to put new measures in place to protect against Omicron 'on a precautionary basis.

'We're confident this is the right approach,' he added.  

Vaccinated arrivals could be avoiding self-isolation by taking a Covid test at the airport and getting their results just three hours later. 

Some testing companies, including ExpressTest, offer this package for £119. 

In total, 22 Omicron cases have been officially confirmed but hundreds more suspected samples are being analysed.

The nine cases in Scotland have been linked to one event on November 20, Nicola Sturgeon confirmed yesterday. 

But there are fears the virus may already be spreading domestically there. 

In the minutes, seen by the BBC but yet to be published, SAGE scientists say extra swabs for travellers returning to the UK would be 'valuable'. 

They also stressed how much uncertainty there is around the variant's transmissibility and effectiveness against vaccines.

Ms Cooper slammed ministers for failing to sit up and take notice of advice from their scientists.

She said: 'It is totally unacceptable that ministers are failing to take action at the border when even their own advisers are telling them to introduce pre-departure tests.

'It cannot be right that people can travel to an airport, board a busy flight, queue at busy departure gates, and travel on trains and buses in the UK, all without having taken a test.

'The Government must not repeat the mistakes it made earlier in the pandemic by being too slow to take action to prevent further cases of the Omicron variant entering the UK.'

Boris Johnson tightened restrictions for arrivals amid concern over the Omicron variant, saying they would slow down its 'seeding' in the UK.

But Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have called on the Prime Minister to go further and require all arrivals to quarantine for eight days. 

Around 78,000 people were arriving in UK airports every day last year, when lockdowns and restrictions slashed air passenger numbers. It is thought to be higher now, although still below the 500,000 arrivals a day registered before the pandemic began. 

Up to fifty direct flights arrived in the UK from South Africa between the Omicron variant being detected and travel restrictions being imposed.

Now anyone coming from the red list country has to go into mandatory hotel quarantine for 11-days at a cost of £2,285. 

At least six countries in southern Africa have also been slapped with the restrictions. 

Guidance for un-vaccinated arrivals required them to take a Covid test three days before departure for the UK, and on day two and day eight after their arrival. They must also self-isolate for ten days. 

For vaccinated travellers they must self-isolate and take a Covid test within two days of their arrival. They can only leave self-isolation when the test is negative. 

Mr Johnson has also brought face masks back in shops, on public transport, and on school corridors, and said everyone who is a close contact of an Omicron case must self-isolate.

Tests and masks for Christmas parties? Sajid Javid says he would take a lateral flow and wear a face covering at a festive bash 

There are 'no guarantees' that there won't be a lockdown this Christmas, the Health Secretary warned today.

In an ominous shift in tone from recent days, Sajid Javid told Good Morning Britain another festive shutdown was 'not the plan', but said: 'We can't rule out any particular measure at this point in time because we always have to look at the data and do what we need to protect people.'

He also urged people to take Covid tests before going to Christmas parties and wear facemasks while partying amid mounting fears about the so-called 'Omicron' variant.  

During a Downing Street press conference yesterday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson urged people not to cancel Christmas parties or school nativity plays. He also promised to 'throw everything' at the booster vaccination campaign to tackle the virus's spread. 

But his government has now been accused of 'mixed messaging' after UK Health Security Agency chief executive Dr Jenny Harries recommended people reduce the extent to which they socialise this winter – in a hint that restrictions could go further. 

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But he has faced pressure for restrictions to be further ramped up amid growing concern over the spread of the Omicron variant.

Dr Jenny Harries, the head of the UK Health Security Agency, said yesterday that people should avoid socialising in the run up to Christmas.

And some experts have called for face masks to be used in classrooms again.

People in Scotland have also been told to start working from home where possible to curb the spread of the virus.  

Scientists are working at breakneck speed to establish the risk it poses, but they say no concrete results are likely for the next two weeks.

Top epidemiologists at the UK Health Security Agency say they need hundreds of cases to be identified before they can make concrete assertions on its transmissibility.

Israeli news site Channel 24 suggested yesterday that Omicron may be 1.3 times more infectious than Delta, but they did not provide any data to back up the claim. The Israeli Health Ministry said it did not recognise the claim. 

It come as the Health Secretary warned today that there are 'no guarantees' that there won't be a lockdown this Christmas,

In an ominous shift in tone from recent days, Sajid Javid told Good Morning Britain another festive shutdown was 'not the plan', but said: 'We can't rule out any particular measure at this point in time because we always have to look at the data and do what we need to protect people.'

He also urged people to take Covid tests before going to Christmas parties and wear facemasks while partying amid mounting fears about the so-called 'Omicron' variant.  

During a Downing Street press conference yesterday, the Prime Minister urged people not to cancel Christmas parties or school nativity plays. He also promised to 'throw everything' at the booster vaccination campaign to tackle the virus's spread. 

But his government has now been accused of 'mixed messaging' after UK Health Security Agency chief executive Dr Jenny Harries recommended people reduce the extent to which they socialise this winter – in a hint that restrictions could go further. 

Fears of an extension of curbs were raised last night after it emerged that new rules on self-isolation will be enshrined in law until the end

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