Dear Editor,
It has been welcome to see the Government finally take action to tighten up COVID-19 security measures at our capital’s airports.
However, Ministers have had ten months to act on this and their dither and delay has significantly set back our efforts to contain the virus.
If the controls at our ports of entry are not strong enough, the increased spread of COVID-19 across borders will lead to the development of more strains like the ones we have seen in South Africa and Brazil. In turn, this could compromise our national vaccination programme.
It is a positive step forwards that travel corridors have been banned and that a new requirement has been put in place for those arriving into the country to take a test five days after landing, or to self-isolate for ten days.
But the Government should now go further and follow the lead of countries with substantially lower case rates, such as South Korea and Australia, by also introducing mandatory testing at airports with a more robust quarantining system as an added layer of protection.
Yours,
Dr Onkar Sahota AM
London Assembly Member for Ealing and Hillingdon