Seven-day quarantine travel quarantine plan unveiled: Travellers will isolate at home and take one test a week after landing, Shapps reveals
Travellers will self-isolate at home and take a coronavirus test a week after landing under new plans to reduce the travel quarantine, Grant Shapps said today.
The Transport Secretary also ruled out testing on arrival at UK airports and ports, telling the virtual Abta travel industry conference: ‘We’re proposing a domestic test regime, where people land and wait a week, have a test and get early release.’
The test will need to take place ‘in person,’ he said. It will be provided by the private sector, in order to prevent putting additional strain on the NHS, and will be paid for by the traveller.
Travellers will self-isolate at home and take a coronavirus test a week after landing under new plans to reduce the travel quarantine, Grant Shapps said today
‘We’re also proposing an internationally recognised system, in which Britain would be a trailblazer, where tests and isolation take place prior to travel and after travel and would require no quarantine,’ Mr Shapps added.
He said he believed the measures described ‘will result in significantly more people flying in the months ahead’. However, Mr Shapps stopped short of providing a start date for the planned testing scheme.
The Transport Secretary announced the launch of the Global Travel Taskforce last week. Its remit includes considering how a testing regime for international arrivals could be implemented to boost safe travel to and from the UK.