OPEN BORDERS
Flights still bringing 15,000 people a DAY into UK without virus testing including travellers from China, Italy & the US
AT least 15,000 people a day are still travelling to the UK without being checked for coronavirus, the health secretary admitted yesterday.
Matt Hancock said the equivalent of 105,000 passengers a week were flying in from countries including China, Italy and the US - all of which have serious outbreaks of the deadly bug.
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The British government has not imposed any health checks or compulsory quarantine periods in for people arriving into UK airports.
By comparison, the US has banned entry for travellers from all of Europe, including Britain.
Other countries, like New Zealand, have enforced a 14-day quarantine period for those entering the country.
'TESTING NOT NEEDED'
But the UK government has said screening passengers upon arrival would do little to halt the spread of the bug because the scale of the UK's outbreak is so big.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain yesterday, Matt Hancock said: " We don't test at airports because the number of people coming through has dropped dramatically.
"The epidemiological impact of keeping travel open is very small because there's already large transmissions here."
This week it emerged that a second border force worker at Heathrow has died from the killer bug, prompting calls for personal protective equipment to be given to all frontline workers.
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The officer, who hasn't been named, is said to have fallen ill while at work and colleagues have paid tribute to him.
Meanwhile Dominic Raab told Brits yesterday the current restrictions in the UK were helping to halt the spread of the virus - with lockdown restrictions to continue for at least another three weeks.
Some will continue social distancing measures beyond this, with EasyJet announcing it would keep the middle seats of planes free when flights resume.
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