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Mixing red and green list passengers must stop or more lethal Covid variants will spread, scientists warn

Government faces calls to ramp up safety at airports after chaotic scenes at Heathrow arrivals

The Government must ramp up safety measures at airports or the Indian Covid-19 variant and other more lethal strains of coronavirus will continue to spread across Britain, experts have warned.

Passengers flying into Heathrow Airport from abroad this week have described chaotic queues in the arrivals lounge at border control as like a “petri dish”.

Travellers from “green”, “red” and “amber” list countries have been forced to queue close together with the situation described as “organised chaos” and “mad,” i revealed last night.

Scientists have urged the Government to beef up border controls and safety measures at airports over fears that crowds at arrivals could help import new variants and send the UK’s progress in fighting the virus backwards.  

“Arrivals from red list countries should be screened differently. They should have separate waiting areas [and] they should not be in the same air space,” said Dr Eleanor Gaunt, virologist at the University of Edinburgh.

“Airports are not well ventilated, especially if you’re standing next to people, and queues can last a considerable length of time — definitely more than a couple of minutes,” she told i.

“It’s very simple — if you’re in close proximity to someone with Covid, the longer you’re near them, the higher your chances are of becoming infected.” 

Dr Gaunt added that failure to implement stronger travel restrictions could result in new, more lethal Covid strains reaching British soil. 

“We’ve had the importation of both the South Africa variant and the Indian variant into the UK already because of inadequate travel restrictions,” she said.

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“But we haven’t seen anything yet that causes more severe disease or is actually able to escape from vaccine-induced immunity. It’s always possible that a variant like that will come up and be imported — we don’t know what’s circulating where.”

Dr Connor Bamford, a virologist at Queen’s University Belfast, added that “new and more dangerous variants of concern could arise… while the pandemic rages outside of the UK”.

“One way to prevent — or slow down — the introduction of variants of concern into the country is through border control, such as the current traffic-light system. However, as the situation recently in India has demonstrated, [it] may not be quick or stringent enough to prevent the entry of variants of concern,” he told i.

Dr Bamford called for the Government to implement better safety measures in the meantime, including separating passengers arriving from “green”, “amber” and “red list” countries, as well as better airport Covid-19 testing.

It comes after people in England were left confused over where they could travel as ministers offered contradictory advice on heading to amber list destinations. 

Just 12 countries on the Government’s green list have been earmarked as safe holiday destinations, with passengers returning from those countries free to enter the UK without quarantining.  

Those arriving from countries on the amber list must quarantine at home for 10 days, while Britons returning from red list countries must adhere to the Government’s hotel quarantine scheme.  

Sunseekers had initially been told to avoid holidays to countries on the amber list because they can be added to the red list at any time. 

However, Environment Secretary George Eustice was accused of giving confusing advice on the traffic-light system earlier this week, when he said that people could travel to amber list countries to see family and friends.

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson later clarified that trips to destinations on the amber list must be for “extreme circumstances” including visiting a sick family member.

There are now 2967 confirmed cases of the B1617.2 strain, known as the Indian variant – a 27 per cent increase from 2323 since Monday.

Scientists have pointed to “growing evidence” that the variant is more transmissible than other Covid strains, though it is not thought to be resistant to available vaccines. 

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Jonathan Ashworth, the Shadow Health Secretary, on Wednesday urged the Government to implement a “comprehensive border policy” to prevent more cases from reaching the UK.

“Our borders have been about as secure as a sieve throughout this crisis and it’s why we are seeing these variants bounce at us,” he told Sky News.

A Heathrow spokesperson said: “There are numerous measures to keep passengers and colleagues safe, including requirements for negative tests pre-departure for all international arrivals, enhanced cleaning regimes and ventilation in the immigration halls, dedicated Covid marshals to enforce social distancing and mandatory use of face coverings throughout the airport. As a result, the risk of transmission at the airport is low.

“The process the Government has designed for ‘red-list’ passengers, triages passengers at Heathrow between aircraft gate and the immigration hall.

“Those from the ‘red list’ are directed into a dedicated channel and separated from other passengers. After crossing the border, Government contractors then escort ‘red list’ passengers to a segregated area of our baggage hall to collect their luggage before taking them to dedicated hotel quarantine transportation.”

A Government spokesperson said: “Protecting public health is our priority and as we reopen international travel safely we will maintain 100 per cent health checks at the border to protect the wider public and our vaccine rollout.

“While we do this, wait times are likely to be longer and we will do all we can to smooth the process, including the roll-out of our e-Gate upgrade programme during the summer and deploying additional Border Force officers.

“Arrangements for queues and the management of returning passengers are the responsibility of the relevant airport, which we expect to be done in a Covid-secure way.”

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