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The government’s policy of quarantining people arriving in the UK for 14-days is “completely useless”, one of the world’s leading scientists has said.
Professor Peter Piot, the director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said on Sunday he hoped the law would be “dropped as soon as possible”.
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show, Piot said the policy “only would have made sense at the very beginning, before we had cases”.
“Today that’s not going not contribute much and the damage it causes to the country and economy is gong to be enormous,” he said.
Piot, who has recovered from coronavirus himself, co-discovered Ebola and also played leading role in researching Aids.
International arrivals into the UK, with some exceptions, have to enter a 14-day quarantine.
It means that anyone traveling abroad for a holiday would then have to isolate for two weeks once they land back in the UK.
The government has said the rule is necessary to further reduce the spread of the infection.
Passengers have to fill out an online locator form giving their contact and travel details, as well as the address of where they will isolate.
People who fail to comply can be fined £1,000 in England, and police are allowed to use “reasonable force” to make sure they follow the rules.
Failure to complete the locator form is punishable by a £100 fixed penalty notice.
In addition to complaints from the travel industry, the scheme has been met with strong criticism from opposition parties and some Conservative MPs.
Ministers have dropped heavy hints the quarantine might soon be lifted for people returning from specific countries by creating so-called travel corridors to enable people to take summer holidays.
Britons will be “freely” welcomed to Spain from Sunday without the need to quarantine there, the nation’s foreign minister said yesterday, and called on the UK to enter a reciprocal agreement.
Home Secretary Priti Patel promised the quarantine would be reviewed after three weeks when she imposed it on June 8, giving her until June 29.