I flew into Heathrow and nobody asked me why I was travelling or where I had come from

With the second highest number of Covid-19 deaths in the world, it is not 'soon to be the time' to quarantine arrivals. That time was weeks ago

Boris Johnson advised the nation on Sunday that it will “soon be the time” for arrivals to the United Kingdom to self-isolate for 14 days upon entering the country. The UK lockdown began seven weeks ago, so it is clear that imposing a quarantine on our arrivals is one of the very last steps in the government’s plan to control the spread of coronavirus. But in the middle of a global pandemic, preventing the virus from coming into our country by air travel should have been at the forefront of those plans.

On 3 April, almost two weeks after the UK entered lockdown, my partner and I arrived in the UK after a 35-hour journey from Sydney to Heathrow. After two previous cancelled flights, we were eager to get home and back to our families. But I was shocked by the Heathrow we were greeted with. A quiet airport, yes, but nevertheless an airport that we were able to leave within an hour.

No questions asked. No tests or temperature checks upon arrival. No record taken of where we would be travelling onward to.

Aside from the lack of the usual hustle and bustle of an international flight hub, just a few posters and hand sanitiser points were the only signs that we were experiencing a global public health crisis exacerbated by the movement of people around the globe by air. We were asked to keep our distance from one another, but I could already see a sharp contrast to the country we had just arrived from.

Back in Sydney, we were required to show our boarding pass and passport to three different members of staff before we could even join the queue to check in – including a security check at the very first door. Multiple members of staff controlled the queues, ensuring all passengers stood on the clear black crosses marked on the floor, each two metres apart.

Why, then, at Heathrow, were passengers able to collect their luggage freely, with no staff to ensure a safe distance was being kept between passengers?

This wasn’t the only difference that concerned me. Upon arrival, we already knew self-isolating for a 14-day period was a sensible idea. Australia had been requiring their arrivals to do this since the 15 March, or risk a high fine. Each time we had checked into a new hostel in Australia we were asked to provide the date that we had entered the country; in some cases, we were asked to sign a statement to verify our arrival to ensure that we were not entering a communal hostel if we were meant to be in a period of self-isolation.

Of course, we expected to abide by similar regulations upon arriving in England. We had just travelled back from the other side of the world and in the middle of a pandemic. But, of course, no such guidance was in place. We both completed a two-week isolation, deciding to be responsible following our trip, but our government did not ask us to do so. We had travelled from Sydney to London, to Plymouth within three days and yet under the UK government’s advice, I could have paid a visit to my local supermarket the very next day if I wished.

Once it had become clear that Covid-19 was a global health emergency, Australia was not the only nation to quickly impose a strict isolation period on arrivals. Germany, France, Greece, Italy, Japan and New Zealand are just some of the countries who currently require their arrivals to do the same. Turkey, Iceland, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Chile and Malta are also marching to the beat of the same drum. Many of these countries also closed their air borders, suspending all international flights.

The UK is the global exception.

The World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a “global health emergency” on 30 January. Between 1 January and 23 March, 18.1 million people entered the UK. Since then, the UK has been through a seven-week lockdown, but the rules on entering our country have – until now – remained unchanged.

With the second-highest number of Covid-19 related deaths in the world, it is not “soon to be the time” to quarantine our arrivals. That time was weeks ago – and we missed it.