The idea of screening arrivals at UK airports for coronavirus will be kept "under review", the transport secretary has said.

Grant Shapps was responding to concerns raised that, despite strict rules on the movement of people within the UK, there are no limitations on passengers arriving from outside.

Speaking at the government's daily coronavirus briefing, Grant Shapps said: "As we come out of any of this and into the next phase at a future point, we will continue to keep the excellent medical and scientific advice we receive under review to say whether those procedures at airports should change."

Image: Heathrow Airport's Terminal 5 departure area is almost empty due to travel restrictions

However, he said countries that had closed to arrivals earlier in the outbreak "have not necessarily weathered the storm of the coronavirus any better".

"Although it must be part of the plan going forward, I think it is probably more useful during the phase of test, track and trace that the health secretary was talking about yesterday," he added.


England's deputy chief medical officer Dr Jenny Harries added that quarantining people returning from abroad becomes "less effective" once the prevalence of the disease balances across the world.

She said: "What may well become an opportunity is when our rates are very tightly controlled and individuals are coming into the country.

"Even then it may not be quite as simple."

Earlier it was reported that Heathrow's chief executive John Holland Kaye had called on ministers to introduce mass screening at airports.

Image: John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow Airport

In a letter sent to Health Secretary Matt Hancock, Mr Holland Kaye called for an internationally-agreed standard of measures which could include temperature checks, antibody tests and a requirement that passengers carry health passports to prove they are medically fit.

The government has previously said that temperature checks would be ineffective against a virus that has an incubation period of up to 14 days but Heathrow has called for evidence on this to be made public.

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While the number of flights arriving at UK airports is a fraction of what was seen before the COVID-19 shutdown, the ones still operating include those from Spain, the US, and France - all countries seeing major outbreaks of the virus.

Despite this, the only instructions given to passengers arriving in the UK is that they should go "straight home", avoiding public transport "where possible".

The policy is very different to those in other countries, many of which are closed to all but citizens, have screening on arrival, or enforce mandatory quarantine for all arrivals - or all three.

Australia and New Zealand, for example, are all closed to foreign travellers, and in most cases even returning citizens are required to do 14 days in quarantine before continuing their journey within the country.

Both countries have been described as having had some success in keeping the number of cases low.