In a pandemic it is a harsh reality that if you fail to manage the risk at borders, you are in effect defenceless against a virus — and its mutations — that can come from overseas. The risk of importing the virus was clear as soon as the Covid crisis began early last year. It is nearly a year since the first people in the UK tested positive, and during the whole of that time the government’s approach to borders has lacked strategy and grip. At the outset concern over the lack of protective measures at the border was huge. I wrote to the home secretary in April 2020 to ask her to publish in full the scientific advice that her decision-making on border measures

Source: The Times January 06, 2021 00:01 UTC