Vaccine progress could be reversed if borders reopen without airport Covid testing, warns expert

‘What we don’t want is new variants coming in that undo all the good that our vaccination programme has done,’ says Dr Mike Tildesley

Dr Mike Tildesley, an infectious diseases expert, warned testing at airports needs to be ‘more efficient’ as he noted the risks of open borders need to be properly recognised (PA)

The progress the UK has made with vaccines could be reversed if borders remain open for international travel and testing is not thoroughly rolled out at airports, an expert has warned.

Dr Mike Tildesley, an infectious diseases expert, said testing at airports needs to be “more efficient” and the risks of open borders must be properly recognised.

It comes as anxiety over the surge in Covid cases in Europe means Boris Johnson faces growing pressure to implement compulsory hotel quarantine for those travelling from France and other European nations.

Dr Tildesley, who is part of the Spi-M modelling group which advises the government, told Times Radio: “I can understand the need for wanting to keep our borders open for as long as possible, but if we are, there's a risk there.

“We need to do what we can to minimise the risk because what we don't want is new variants coming in that undo all the good that our vaccination programme has done.

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“If we are going to allow travel to continue we clearly need to do something about making sure that testing is much more efficient at airports and making sure that tracing works, and also that people are isolating for the full period, and we need to give people the support to do so.”

Dr Tildesley deemed next week to be the "right time to reopen" in England ahead of lockdown restrictions starting to be eased on Monday.

Mandatory hotel quarantine for all arrivals from selected “high-risk” countries were rolled out by the government 11 months after the pandemic hit last spring in a bid to curb new variants of Covid-19 making their way into the UK.

Half of all UK adults have now had their first dose of the vaccine and a study this week discovered more than four in five people who were hesitant about getting a vaccine in December had changed their mind by February.