A PASSENGER travelling from South Africa has revealed that she walked through Heathrow airport in 10 minutes with NO checks.
Sharon Feinstein, from Islington, North London, claims she went through the terminal with no questions, despite flying from Johannesburg – where the mutant Covid strain is rife.
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The traveller landed in London Heathrow yesterday after visiting her mum in South Africa – but was just ushered through passport control.
Despite having documents to prove she had a negative test, there was no one to show it to, Ms Feinstein claims.
She told the Daily Express: “I could have had Covid, they don’t know where I am staying, they didn’t ask.
“As a country we’re messing up. Why can a third-world country get it right and we can’t?”
Ms Feinstein added that she was “shocked” that it only took her 10 minutes to get through the airport control.
She told Good Morning Britain today: “I was shocked. I fully expected to take around a hour.
“I had my negative Covid test, I had my passenger locator form, I had various other forms.
“We were all queuing up, then I was ushered towards the electronic booth.
“I was literally through there in 10 minutes. Nobody was there. I was looking around for someone to show my test to.”
Passengers arriving in the UK will have to take two Covid tests during their 10-day isolation – even if they’re allowed to quarantine at home, rather than at a hotel.
The plans were revealed as the country toughens up its borders amid fears over vaccine-busting mutations of the virus.
People arriving from ‘red list’ countries will have to spend a week and a half under guard in hotels.
But even those coming in from other, safer locations will now be tested twice during their mandatory isolation.
The proposals will be introduced on February 15 – the same date hotel quarantines will come into force.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Throughout the pandemic, the Government has put in place proportionate measures, informed by the advice of scientists, that have led to some of the toughest border regimes in the world.
“Enhancing our testing regime to cover all arrivals while they isolate will provide a further level of protection and enable us to better track any new cases which might be brought into the country, and give us even more opportunities to detect new variants.”
