United Kingdom toughens travel although experts see it “too late”

The United Kingdom has decided to tighten restrictions on travels to try to limit the import of the new variant omicron of the coronavirus, although some experts warn that the limitations arrive “too late”, when community transmission has already begun in the country.

“It’s like closing the stable door when the horse has run wild,” epidemiologist Mark Woolhouse, a member of the government’s advisory group on pandemics, said on the BBC, who considered that the new barriers will not make “a substantial difference in the evolution of a wave of omicron, if there is going to be one ”.

As of Tuesday, travelers arriving in the United Kingdom will have to have passed a Covid-19 test prior to their flight, a measure that the Government had withdrawn in October, and another PCR test two days after their arrival.

The Executive will also add Nigeria to its red list, which already includes South Africa and other neighboring countries. Only British and Irish citizens and people with a residence permit will be able to enter the country from these destinations, who must maintain a ten-day quarantine in a hotel upon arrival.

Blow for the tourism industry

The CEO of the business travel association (BTA), Clive Wratten, lamented that the almost unannounced reintroduction of testing “hits a hammer” on the industry.

“Public health is a priority, but there are going to be companies that go bankrupt, travelers that are trapped and livelihoods devastated by the lack of coherent plans by the Government,” he said.

Tim Alderslade, CEO of Airlines UK, which represents British airline groups, criticized for his part that the Executive is taking measures against the omicron variant before having the “complete data” on its dangerousness. “We have no clinical evidence,” Alderslade argued.

Justice Minister Dominic Raab was tasked with defending the government’s position on Sunday’s political programs on major British television networks.

“I know this is going to be a barrier to the travel industry, but we have made huge strides forward in this country. We must take forensically directed measures to prevent the new variant from taking root in this country and creating a greater problem, ”said Raab.

On the possibility that the restrictions arrive too late, the minister considered that there will always be “criticisms about whether too much or too little has been done.”

Increase in cases

Some 160 omicron cases have been confirmed in the UK so far and the variant is spreading “pretty fast,” according to Woolhouse.

The arrival of the new variant coincides with a general increase in infections in the country, which at the end of the last week registered more than 50,000 cases during two consecutive days.

Transmission levels have equaled the high point of last July, when social interaction during the soccer Eurocup triggered the contagion.

Save christmas

The Government has re-imposed the use of masks in stores and public transport, but for now rules out making them mandatory in the hotel industry and defends that the population should maintain its social life as it has been up to now.

The official message from the Executive is that corporate Christmas parties and other social events should be maintained, although the industry has warned that cancellations have multiplied in recent days.

However, Raab admitted today that the Ministry of Justice will not organize a Christmas celebration this year, as did this week the Secretary of State for Science, Research and Innovation, George Freeman.

The head of the United Kingdom Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has also contradicted the official line of the Government, who has recommended limiting social interactions “when they are not particularly necessary.”

The professor of Statistics at the University of Oxford David Spiegelhalter said today on the Sky News chain that although the Executive “would love not to have to interrupt Christmas”, after the New Year “there will be many difficulties and that may mean even tougher measures ”.