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It also comes despite new government moves apparently designed to increase confidence in the return to office.
The Health Department announced Saturday that workplace testing will now be available to all businesses, including those with fewer than 50 employees.
Companies can register and request lateral flow tests starting Saturday. So far, more than 3,500 have signed up to offer workplace testing programs and more than 14,000 have registered an interest in offering rapid tests.
Sir Graham Brady, chairman of the Tory backbench 1922 Committee, said: “With the progress of the vaccine program and the actual drop in positive tests for Covid in the UK, it is time we started to get rid of intrusive regulations, not bringing new.
“This threatens to be another bureaucratic nightmare that will limit people’s freedom, give too much control to the state, and achieve nothing at all under Covid’s control.”
Henry Smith, chairman of the all-party Future of Aviation Group, said: “I really don’t get it. It’s weird, it’s crazy. It’s another huge disincentive for anyone to get on a plane. We have a passenger locator.” forms and quarantine for ‘red list’ countries. If you need an identity document, you will have a passport. There are implications for civil liberties. “
The move was also condemned by the travel industry. Paul Charles, co-founder of Save our Summer, said: “Travel adds an additional layer of complexity when the data shows that things are looking up. The government must say when it will phase it out and open the UK for business.”
The forms that require people to explain their reasons for traveling were pointed out six weeks ago by Priti Patel, the interior minister, but were only released on Friday for release on Monday.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has warned that anyone who shows up at an airport without their form and supporting documentation to justify their travel will face £ 200 fines and will be barred from their flights.
The DfT said the police were intensifying patrols at ports and airports and would carry out on-the-spot checks on passengers to require them to show the new forms. Anyone violating the non-essential travel ban faces fines that start at £ 200 but increase to £ 6,400.
The three-page “travel declaration form” asks people to state why they have to go abroad during the travel ban and to bring “evidence” such as a letter from the employer and a professional identification card , if your justification is a job.
It came as Hancock revealed that Covid cases had dropped by a third, hospital admissions dropped 29 percent, the fastest weekly drop at any time during the pandemic, and deaths dropped 41 percent. .
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