Tomorrow: UK mandatory hotel quarantine for so-called ‘red list’ arrivals begins ✈️

That’s 55 days since S African #COVID19 variant was detected in UK ⏳

1 year since “global health emergency” declared 🗓⚠️

(25+ million already arrived: no tests/screening for any passengers)
There are no direct passenger flights from “red list” nations — but people are still arriving via transit airports 🔀

UK Border Force will need to check passport data, interview, & locator form to determine who’s been where. They’ve already warned this will not happen for all.
Heathrow - Britain’s hub airport - has this weekend warned “significant gaps remain and we are yet to receive the necessary reassurances”

There’s still a lot unknown: Border Force want e-gates open. But if they are open, ‘red list’ passengers can glide through, undetected.
Pilots & crew will be exempt — but UK *still* does not test crew, or aviation front liners

If hotel quarantine is to keep passenger arrivals in a bubble, that bubble bursts once a crew member (who mixed with those passengers & has not had test) enters a supermarket. #COVID19
In most countries with hotel quarantine, airlines receive dedicated, sector-specific state aid.

Financial support to the wider aviation sector (not just airlines) is even more urgent in UK — they’re fragile & suffering.

Vaccines offer hope, but the support is long overdue.
The science tells us that air travel is a vector for #COVID19 transmission. ✈️

The government will eventually need to outline a long term strategy to have Air Travel + COVID19 coexist with measures, such as a sufficient, inexpensive testing regime for passengers/crew/etc.
You can follow @AlexInAir.
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