The Telegraph launched its Test4Travel campaign, which calls for cheap, effective Covid-19 tests at airports and ports by Christmas, on Wednesday.
The campaign is based on exclusive data that shows that the UK population wants testing to be introduced at airports and is prepared to pay for it. This was also reflected in a poll of Telegraph travel readers. The Telegraph’s campaign has been backed by airport chiefs, health professionals, MPs and readers and will urge the Government to drop it’s current, ineffective quarantine in order to save the travel industry and help to revive the UK’s tourism industry.
Telegraph readers have shared what they think of the current ‘travel corridors’ system and the alternatives, including testing. Read on to see what Telegraph readers have had to say about the Test4Travel campaign and remember to share your own view in the comments section at the bottom of this article.
‘The Government has been cowardly’
@Howdy Doody:
“The quarantine fiasco just typifies the entire debacle of the mass hysteria surrounding Covid-19. The Government have been cowardly and imprecise in their stupid overeactions that are destroying the country.”
‘Testing is obviously the best way to go’
@David Boyd:
“I agree wholeheartedly. The on-off quarantine policy is ridiculous and based on arbitrary numbers. Airport and port testing is obviously the best way to go. Covid-hysteria is destroying this country economically, mentally and culturally.”
‘You should arrive with a Covid-19 certificate’
@Yvonne Ditchfield:
“Why aren’t people arriving with their own Covid-19 certificate (24 hours before travelling) stating that they are free of Covid-19 from their own country of origin?
“This must be shown before they gain access through UK airports?
‘The current system is not working’
@Derek Piercey:
“I would support testing at airports. The current system is not working and is having devastating long-term implications for our economy. Why can they not see this?”
‘A totally pragmatic solution’
@Kevin Seymour:
“The whole thing is now mass hysteria over something we are going to have to live with forever. Testing is a totally pragmatic solution both domestically and economically.
“If we are to be controlled on where and how we travel, this is a reasonable solution.
“Better still, how about we just get on with our lives? It is no longer about cases but more about deaths and NHS capacity!”
‘I fear it will prolong the problem’
@David Anderson:
“It’s well-intentioned, but I fear it will prolong the problem. What we should really do is simply scrap any requirements until there is evidence of hospitalisations and death tolls going up. More bureaucracy and more costs are not needed to detect whether someone who isn’t ill might be carrying something that isn’t making others seriously ill either. When that’s what’s happening, it’s just absurd psycho-theatre.
“Yes, there’s always the chance that one person somewhere might be carrying bubonic plague. But a sane society imposes serious inconvenience on everyone only when the threat is statistically significant, not because of worst-case scenarios.”
‘Travel is vital’
@Jolly Roger:
“Great campaign. Travel is a vital freedom, through this freedom, we built the world we have, commerce is predicated on the movement of goods and people.”‘
‘We need a solution’
@Kelly Howells:
“Totally agree with this. Long term we need a solution to enable people to travel – both for quality of life and the economy.
“I have just returned from Italy but spent the first week on my phone checking for rates just in case quarantine was announced. We need to find a way to live with the virus and this is a sensible solution.”
‘If this goes some way to mitigating the damage to the travel industry then I’m all for it’
@Michelle Page:
“I would prefer a blanket repeal of all Covid-19 regulations but if this goes some way to mitigate the damage to the travel industry and appease the paranoid then I’m all for it.
“Of course some of those among us will still view the act of going on holiday as akin to genocide but if this is what’s required to prevent the collapse of our aviation industry then so be it.
“Clearly the government has no inclination to avoid economic collapse so it’s up to the rest of us.”
‘The same outcome with fewer tests’
@Another View:
“Regardless of whether the test at the airport returns positive or negative, you have to quarantine for a minimum of five days (negative), maximum 14 days (positive).
“Why not give out testing kits and tell passengers to take the test after five days, send it in, if it comes back negative you’re free to go out, otherwise you stay in for another nine days.
“Doesn’t that give the same outcome with fewer tests?
‘Let’s test on departure and arrival and stop hurting our travel industry’
@James Dunmore:
“Yes, yes, yes. Just travelled back from a holiday in Greece and it was crazy. There were no tests at the airport, just vaguely waving a QR code.
“Let’s test on departure and arrival, and stop hurting our travel industry.”
‘The Government has been months behind the curve’
@Michael Tunstall:
“The principle of test while you wait would liberate so many things. In fact it is so obvious I assumed after it was first announced there must be some major problem why it wasn’t introduced.
“In hindsight, the Government has been months behind the curve on so many issues that they are now just compounding our misery by becoming part of the problem.”