Britain is making “good progress” with a plan to allow COVID-19 tests to cut a 14-day quarantine period for those returning from abroad, a change which could help fuel a travel recovery once current lockdowns end, the transport minister said.
“We’re making very good progress on a test to release programme to launch once we’re out of this lockdown,” UK transport minister Grant Shapps told an online airport industry conference this morning adding that Beyond the lockdown, this should encourage more people to be able to book flights with confidence, knowing there is an option which allows them to shorten self-isolation if they’re going somewhere which isn’t in – or does become outside – a travel corridor..
Shapps also said the UK was working with other countries on developing standard international rules relating to quarantine. “We’re leading international work to help develop a framework for international travel to provide global consistency, an accepted standard, an international standard,” he said.
And he said the rapid lateral flow test being trialled in Liverpool could eventually open the way for non-quarantine air travel. “Of course, that is what we absolutely would love to achieve,”
