No plans to introduce coronavirus testing for passengers at Doncaster Sheffield Airport as Grant Shapps says it is 'under active review'

Doncaster Council’s director of public health, Dr Rupert Suckling, responding to a question from Mexborough Coun Andy Pickering on airport testing, said capacity issues meant this was not possible at this time and there was no Government guidance on this.

Currently, people arriving at the airport testing centre showing symptoms of coronavirus are being tested and passengers arriving back asymptomatic do not have to be tested.

At present, those who arrive from countries such as Spain and France are being asked to self-isolate for 14 days due to rising cases in those countries.

But Dr Suckling said the travel and aviation industries are in early discussions with Government ministers to rolling out testing for passengers on arrival and after five days.

“The current UK policy on testing is only test people with symptoms – so we currently wouldn’t signpost people who arrive at Doncaster Sheffield Airport to go to the testing station,” Dr Suckling said.

“The airline industry is speaking to Government on whether they can bring in a testing procedure to test people immediately on arrival and then five days later who produce the period of quarantine.

“At the moment, the advice for people coming back from the allotted air corridors is to go about their daily business assuming they had no symptoms and for those from somewhere no longer within an air corridor they have to quarantine for 14 days.

“I do think we will see movement on that in response to the aviation and the travel industry.

Coun Pickering added: “The reason I mention this, is because we do seem to have an opportunity with the testing site at the airport – is something we could push for?”

“We would only want to press for that if there was sufficient capacity at the airport testing station,” Dr Suckling said.