News Every Day | 16 January 2021, 20:01

Brits scramble to get home before every single travel corridor is axed

Travellers have been seen pouring back into Heathrow Airport today after Boris Johnson announced all new arrivals will have to quarantine from Monday.

The Prime Minister has scrapped the ‘travel corridors’ scheme due to the threat of new strains of Covid coming in from abroad.

His announcement seemingly triggered a rush of people aiming to make it back home before being forced into self-isolation.

The airport was busy with people laden down with large amounts of luggage. One woman passed through the arrivals lounge dressed in a full haz mat suit to ensure she didn’t pick up the infection while travelling.

The scenes weren’t quite as frantic as those seen over the summer when last minute rule changes led to thousands flooding back into the country after abandoning their holidays.

Very few people have been travelling for leisure while the country has been in lockdown and several countries already had travel bans in place because of the UK Covid variant that was first detected in Kent.

Passengers arriving from 60 countries including New Zealand and Sri Lanka – where cases of the virus are very low – had not been expected to quarantine until now.

From 4am on Monday, the rule changes mean arrivals from anywhere in the world will have to isolate for 10 days or test negative after five days.

epa08941424 Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport earlier today (Picture: EPA)

Mandatory Credit: Photo by Mark Thomas/REX (11712623e) International arrivals at Heathrow Terminal 2. All travel corridors will close from 04:00 GMT on Monday Jan 18th. After that, arrivals to the UK will need to quarantine for up to 10 days, unless they test negative after five days. The Government announced a travel ban from Brazil and other South American countries following concern of a new Coronavirus variant. All international arrivals, including UK nationals, will have to present a negative Covid-19 test before they board a plane, train or boat bound for the UK, taken up to 72 hours before their journey began. International Arrivals at Heathrow, Heathrow Terminal 2, London, UK - 16 Jan 2021 — Travellers have until 4am on Monday to return to the country or face having to isolate (Picture: Mark Thomas/REX)

epa08941790 A Covid-19 test centre at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January, Travellers will also need to provide a negative test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under severe pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. EPA/ANDY RAIN — A Covid-19 test centre at Heathrow Airport (Picture: EPA)

epa08941789 A Covid-19 test centre at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January, Travellers will also need to provide a negative test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under severe pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. EPA/ANDY RAIN — Passengers must prove they have tested negative before flying into the UK (Picture: EPA)

Further rules mean those who are still travelling will have to show evidence of a negative test result taken within 72 hours of their departure time.

This measure was already supposed to be in place by now but its introduction was pushed back.

Labour have welcomed the changes but say they fear the new rules have come too late to stop new strains spreading around the country.

Experts have said it’s ‘likely’ the new super infectious Brazilian strain of Covid is already in the UK.

epa08941379 Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — Passengers arrive back in the country before the deadline (Picture: EPA)

epa08941425 Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — The rules will be in place until at least mid-February (Picture: EPA)

epa08941887 Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — Some have criticised the Government for acting too late (Picture: EPA)

Labour chairwoman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, Yvette Cooper, said: ‘Other countries have had stronger measures in place for a long time and I urged the Prime Minister at the Liaison Committee to take urgent action on this.

‘The continued delays in bringing in testing for travellers has been a serious concern, especially in the light of new variants where we need to be able to act swiftly.

‘It has been four weeks since the warnings on the South Africa variant in addition to the warnings on the new strain from Brazil this week.

‘Due to delays in publishing the Government guidance on pre-travel testing, people can still travel home to the UK from Brazil or Portugal or South Africa this weekend without getting a test.

epa08941888 A Traveller arrives at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — The new rules are intended to try to stop new strains of the virus spreading in the UK (Picture: EPA)

epa08941426 Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — Flights from Brazil and the rest of South America have already been banned (Picture: EPA)

epa08941889 A Traveller arrives at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 16 January 2021. The UK government is implementing a closure on all travel corridors from Monday 18 January 2021. Travellers will also need to provide a negative coronavirus test to enter the country. Britain's national health service (NHS) is coming under sever pressure as Covid-19 hospital admissions continue to rise across the UK. Some one thousand people are dying each day from the Covid-19 disease. EPA/ANDY RAIN — Around 1,000 people a day are currently dying from coronavirus in the UK (Picture: EPA)

‘We need to see more details on the proposals to strengthen checks in the quarantine system. Currently the majority of passengers are not even checked to see if they have filled in their passenger locator forms and we need more follow-up on quarantine.’

Aviation minister Robert Courts insisted the Government has a ‘very strong’ package of measures in place to protect the public from any new coronavirus variants.

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that the Government was ‘toughening up already tough requirements’ to ensure that new variants do not arrive from abroad while the vaccine is rolled out.

Mr Courts said a ‘total ban’ on travel to the UK would not be right, and that pre-departure testing, passenger locator forms and the quarantine period makes the system ‘robust’.

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