Transport secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed the government is looking at the possibility of introducing regional travel corridors as an alternative to blanket quarantine but said variations in infection rates in short spaces of time meant it was not a straightforward solution.
Speaking to BBC Breakfast, he said: “I think there is a case for regionalisation, there is a place for that, but I think it is much harder to do within a country (than within a broader region).
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“Where there are islands, that is something we have said before we will look at and we are looking at.”
Speaking to Sky News, Shapps reiterated the challenges of introducing a regional approach, and said it was currently “too difficult” to implement.
Shapps also confirmed the Department of Transport was working closely with Heathrow and other airports on possible measures to ease the current two-week quarantine period, including a two-test system.
However, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that he did not want to offer “false hope” and said there were no imminent plans to introduce an alternative to the current approach.
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