Covid-19 variants remain one of the greatest threats to a return to normality. While our present set of vaccines are highly effective against the virus, they are less so against mutant strains such as the South African variant.
It is for this reason that foreign holidays remain banned and returning travellers from red zone countries must quarantine in hotels. It is also the logic behind initiatives such as the £5,000 fines for Britons who leave the UK without reasonable excuse.
These rules do not apply to people who must travel abroad for work, including hauliers. Yet the virus does not discriminate between holidaymakers and lorry drivers.
Around 10,000 lorries travel between Dover and Calais every day during periods of high demand. Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam revealed yesterday that more than two-thirds of people coming to the UK from abroad, many of whom are hauliers, are not covered by present restrictions.
We accept we need to allow vital trade to continue to flow. Brexit has already made this substantially worse — some hauliers refuse to drive to the UK because of delays. But if we are serious about preventing dangerous variants from becoming the dominant strain in the UK, we should do more.
In the absence of vaccine passports coming anytime soon, and with the added worry that some European leaders have undermined the AstraZeneca vaccine, further slowing immunisation rates, the Government must consider requiring foreign hauliers arriving in the UK to take Covid-19 tests.
It is only by being tough on the import of variants that we can open up at home and prevent another lockdown later in the autumn.
