A terminal at London's Heathrow Airport that was mothballed because of the coronavirus pandemic reopened Tuesday to serve passengers arriving from high-risk countries -- an action that critics said was long overdue.
Britain has barred travellers from a "red list" of 43 coronavirus hotspots including India, Brazil, Turkey and South Africa, fearing they could bring in worrisome virus variants. U.K. citizens and residents who return from those countries face a mandatory 10-day supervised quarantine in a government-approved hotel.
Heathrow said in a statement that it had set up the new arrivals facility because "red list routes will likely be a feature of U.K. travel for the foreseeable future." "This is another poorly planned initiative that will be understaffed and rely on volunteers to do overtime, to avoid mounting queues," the union said.
The rising cases have cast doubt on the Conservative government's plans to lift social distancing rules and remaining pandemic-related restrictions on June 21. Many scientists are urging a delay, arguing that more people need to be vaccinated before measures can be eased safely.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
U.K. vaccine passport plans to be scrapped, Daily Telegraph reportsU.K. plans to scrap COVID-19 passports as a legal requirement for large events
Read more »
B.C.'s minimum wage increases to $15.20 an hour on June 1Over the last four years, the province’s minimum wage has steadily gone up from $11.35 an hour in 2017 to $15.20 on June 1, 2021.
Read more »
Virus variants renamed after letters of the Greek alphabet to avoid stigmatizing countriesThe four coronavirus variants known as the U.K., South Africa, Brazil and India variants have now been given the letters Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta
Read more »
Trudeau asks flags be lowered to honour 215 dead Indigenous children found at former B.C. residential school\u0027It is a great open secret that our children lie on the properties of the former schools — an open secret that Canadians can no longer look away from\u0027
Read more »