The Independent led the way in calling for coronavirus testing of arrivals at British airports, something that finally became law last week. In fact, we advocated testing at a time when the level of infections in the United Kingdom was low; there seemed little point to it when the virus was widespread, because the contribution from new arrivals was “negligible” compared with the spread from existing cases in the country, as the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies put it in March.
However, requiring arrivals to show a negative test now makes sense, because of the threat from new variants of coronavirus. Unfortunately, time has been lost because preparations were not made, and so there was a delay of several days before the new regime could come into effect. It is too early to be sure that vaccines protect against the South African or Brazilian variants, but the loss of those days could have mattered. We need to be in a position where we can react to new threats immediately.
It would seem from passenger crowding at Heathrow Terminal 2 on Friday that even that delay did not give Border Force officials and the airport management time to ensure that the inevitably longer queues could be managed safely.
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