A full closure of the United Kingdom’s borders to avoid the spread of foreign coronavirus variants was deemed “probably ineffective” by Government advisers, according to a Government minister.
Michelle Donelan, the Universities Minister, has said the committee actually advised that a full border closure would be “ineffective”, and recommended quarantine and testing for arrivals instead.
Leaked advice from the Government’s Sage committee that was published in The Times, suggests ministers were warned of the dangers of the new South African variant at least two weeks ago.
They were advised that a full border shutdown or mandatory quarantine for all arrivals was the only way to prevent its spread.
Michelle Donelan told Times Radio: “What they actually said was it would prove probably ineffective to completely lock down your borders, and a better strategy is quarantining and utilising testing, which is exactly what we are doing,
“At the beginning of the pandemic the World Health Organisation also suggested that closing down borders would potentially be ineffective as well.”
Professor Calum Semple, who sits on the Sage committee, said: “It’s much easier if you are a small island to close your borders. But in general I do support restricting the movement of people at this time.”
The UK’s Border Force is checking “up to 25 per cent” of passengers to make sure they have essential reasons for travel, the Universities Minister has said.
When asked why the UK had not opted for a full border closure, Michelle Donelan said: “This isn’t our only policy. We have countries we have banned travel from. Our message to people who want to go abroad is that there is a very small list of exemptions and that we are checking that.
“In fact, Border Force have checked up 25 per cent of passengers coming in, everyone has to have a PCR test as well.”
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Editor-in-Chief | Carl D. Pearson has been involved in British politics and media from an early age, with the key knowledge of what it takes to run a news organisation for the 21st century. Mr Pearson, as Editor-in-chief, is responsible for supervising the daily tasks of publishing media and content to UNN’s website and various platforms.
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