Government officials have reportedly begun talks with hotel groups over plans
It comes after ministers asked officials to look into a quarantine hotel scheme
Similar hotel schemes are used in countries such as Australia and New Zealand
In Australia, travellers have to pay up to £1,500 to cover cost of two week stay
Hotel system could be used to help prevent spread of new Covid strains in UK
Cutting the quarantine period for people who have been in contact with an infected person to one week and requiring them to test negative on the last day would be just as effective as the existing government advice of 14 days, a study claims.
Currently, a person who tests positive for coronavirus is told to self-isolate for two weeks, as are people they may have come into contact with.
But researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine created a computer model to see how reducing the quarantine period for contacts affected the spread of the virus.
The findings indicate that contacts who test negative after seven days of quarantine are unlikely to be infectious and can be released with little risk.
The only people to have bragged about vaccine supply are ministers themselves. Rewind to last summer and you could be forgiven for thinking that we would soon be drowning in the stuff.
On August 14, the Business Secretary Alok Sharma made the third in a string of world-beating vaccine supply announcements with news of a further “90 million” doses.
“It means the UK has placed orders for six experimental vaccines, taking its potential stockpile to 340 million doses,” explained the BBC’s Fergus Walsh. “In theory, there should be enough for everyone in the UK to get five doses.”
Back then ministers were not just saving Britain but saving the world. “Today s agreements will not only benefit people in the UK but will ensure fair and equitable access of a vaccine around the world, potentially protecting hundreds of millions of lives,” said Mr Sharma.
Professor Jon Deeks, a biostatistician from the University of Birmingham, accused the Government of making lateral flow tests seem better than they are
Boris Johnson s extortionate Operation Moonshot mass-swabbing scheme could accelerate Covid s spread because the tests are so inaccurate, a top expert has warned.
Professor Jon Deeks, a testing expert at the University of Birmingham, accused the Government of making lateral flow tests seem better than they are in a bid to justify the £100billion scheme.
Professor Deeks and other scientists are concerned that the tests are significantly less accurate when people do them themselves, as is the plan for Opertaion Mooonshot.