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Green list system will still let variants in, say scientists
The traffic light system has ‘obvious flaws’ which could see variants still enter the country, scientists have said (Picture: Reuters/EPA)

New Covid variants will still enter the UK as the Government’s traffic light system for travel to and from England has ‘obvious flaws’, scientists have said.

The new system, which sees countries given a traffic light status based on their infection rates, will allow some international travel to resume from May 17.

On Friday, it was announced that places such as Portugal, Israel, Australia, Gibraltar and the Falklands would be on the ‘green list’, where travellers won’t need to quarantine upon their return.

But members of the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) have now expressed their concerns that the system is just ‘window dressing’ and won’t protect the country against the risks of variants.

Professor Martin Hibberd, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, also said more Covid testing was necessary before international travel reopens.

He told The Observer: ‘While in the UK, we look forward to less disease and fewer restrictions, this is not the case in most of the world. Indeed, for many countries infections are likely to come in waves for at least another year and perhaps longer.

epa09175524 Travellers arrive at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain, 03 May 2021. Holidays abroad are set to resume on 17 May if the governments road map for lockdown easing continues. A cross party group of MP's however are recommending that foreign holidays should be discouraged due to the threat of Covid-19 variants which could cause a third wave in the UK. EPA/ANDY RAIN
Travel to some countries will be allowed from May 17 (Picture: EPA)
Representatives of tour operator TUI provide information to British tourists at the airport in Palma de Mallorca on July 27, 2020. - Tour operator TUI has cancelled all British holidays to mainland Spain from today until August 9, after the UK government's decision to require travellers returning from the country to quarantine. (Photo by JAIME REINA / AFP) (Photo by JAIME REINA/AFP via Getty Images)
Those who go abroad will also be mixing with other arrivals (Picture: Getty Images)

‘As a result, imports are likely to become an increasingly important part of new transmissions circulating within the UK. We should develop an effective strategy to cope with the competing desires to allow international travel, while keeping circulating virus in the UK to a minimum.

‘From my infectious disease perspective, for travel, I would like to see more testing, preferably with professionally taken swabs, and more support for quarantining, at home when it is possible – and which can be verified for compliance – together with an effective tracing programme.’

Martin McKee, a professor of European public health at the same university, also described how those travelling abroad would also be mixing with other arrivals from different destinations.

He went on: ‘The criterion you should be looking at is not the infection rate and vaccination rate in the host country, but among the people who you’re likely to be mixing with.

Countries on the Government's green list

Portugal including the Azores and Madeira

Israel

Australia

New Zealand 

Singapore

Brunei 

Iceland

Faroe Islands

Gibraltar 

Falkland Islands

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands

St Helena, Tristan de Cunha, Ascension Island

‘It’s an obvious flaw. And if you’re going to be transiting through any airport, you’re going to be mixing with people who are going to be coming from other places.’

Gurch Randhawa, professor of diversity in public health at the University of Bedfordshire, said people should therefore only holiday within the UK for the time-being, and warned that imported variants could result in more Covid deaths.

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from metro.co.uk

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