Grant Shapps says foreign arrivals could FINALLY be quarantined over coronavirus risk

Foreign visitors to the UK could face time in quarantine as the Government ‘actively’ considers stronger anti-coronavirus measures at the borders, a senior minister revealed today.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said that new arrivals could also be forced to download a new contract app onto their smartphone as a condition of entry.

New restrictions would make the UK one of the last countries to introduce them, with the country very much an outlier in recent weeks by not halting inbound flights or insisting arrivals are checked.

People arriving are advised to self-isolate but there is no enforced testing. 

Home Secretary Priti Patel is  believed to be among those who have demanded tougher rules for foreign visitors and the remaining Brits still abroad who make it home.

Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show Mr Shapps said: ‘I think it is important that as we are seeing the numbers decrease and the R rate we hope decrease… that we do ensure that the sacrifices in a sense – social distancing – that we are asking the British people to make are matched by anybody who comes to this country.

‘I am actively looking at these issues right now so that when we have infection rates within the country under control we are not importing.’

Although the vast majority of global air travel has collapsed, flights are still arriving, and ports are also allowing mostly freight traffic into the UK to keep vital services and firms going.

The boss of Heathrow is among those who has urged ministers to introduce mass screening at airports. In a major intervention, chief executive John Holland-Kaye  wrote to Health Secretary Matt Hancock to demand stringent regulations to combat coronavirus.

Last week Bournemouth Airport became the first UK airport to start checking passengers for signs of coronavirus.

Bosses have installed ‘thermal fever detection’ cameras that are capable of recording body temperatures and alerting border guards to anyone with a fever.

The tripod-mounted cameras have been fixed to the airport’s staff entrance but will soon be installed at every entrance to the airport’s departures and arrivals terminals.

Speaking to Sky News’s Ridge on Sunday this morning, Mr Shapps announced that the new smartphone contact tracing app being developed by the NHS’s digital arm would start trials on the Isle of Wight this week.

And he mooted the idea of making its use mandatory for new arrivals – although it is unclear how people who do not possess a mobile phone would be affected.

He said: ‘I think it would be wrong … if we are all still being asked to socially distance, for people coming in not to do the same thing.

‘So we’ll be looking at things like this app -which very soon, in two or three weeks’ time we are going to be asking the whole country to download – which will help with the test and track and trace, this is obviously the tracking part of it, that’s very important. 

‘We could be asking everybody who comes here to be required to have that app and the same rules apply to anyone visiting which is, as you know, to stay locked down effectively.

‘The same social distance rules clearly would need to apply to everybody under those circumstances.’