To ask Her Majesty's Government why they did not introduce COVID-19 testing at UK ports of entry in March 2020.
Answered on
31 January 2022
In March 2020, testing capacity was limited and insufficient to deploy to all international arrivals. Doing so would have diverted testing capacity from patients in hospitals to asymptomatic arrivals, at a time when the virus was already circulating within the domestic population.
Answered by
Department of Health and Social Care