Travel trade bosses say the logic behind the government’s PCR testing regime has been “shot out of the water” by figures showing very few positive results are genome-sequenced.
Their comments came after Conservative MP Huw Merriman said only 5% of all the PCR tests from arriving passengers that came back positive in the three-week period from July 1 were genome-sequenced in order to track possible Covid-19 variants.
The MP dubbed the PCR tests an “unnecessary rip-off” and advocated cheaper lateral flow tests for travel instead.
Speaking on a Travel Weekly webcast, Miles Morgan, chairman of Miles Morgan Travel, said: “My confidence in why we are doing the testing has been completely shot out of the water by the news from the MP Huw Merriman.”
He quoted the figures revealed by the MP, which showed that about 500,000 PCR tests were taken over that three-week period. A total of 6,977 were positive but only 354 were sequenced.
Passengers had spent £35 million on PCR tests, so it equates to about £100,000 per sequenced test.
“The whole point of PCR testing is to stop variants,” said Morgan.
“If you are not going to genome-sequence, it’s not doing the job it was set up for.
“It makes total sense to forget that and do lateral flow testing.”
He said it would greatly reduce costs for travellers and make holidays affordable, instead of paying “lunatic amounts of money for testing”.
Gold Medal managing director Lisa McAuley agreed that the revelations meant PCR testing has “lost its logic” and “blow it out of the water”.
She said testing was one of the biggest hurdles for customers because of the hassle and the fact they are “mind-blowingly expensive for most people”.
Caribtours managing director Paul Cleary agreed, saying that his family of five had to pay £550 for just for pre-departure tests ahead of a trip to Croatia.
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