So we all have to stay in our houses to stop the spread, everyday there’s videos of the police abusing their powers in the name of this ‘lockdown’ but they don’t mind 15,000 people a day flying into the country? - From Good Morning Britain audience. Reported by Daily Express

Daily Telegraph,20 April 2020:

UK coronavirus lockdown: what are the rules, and when will it be lifted?

Government has closed schools, pubs, restaurants, cafes, gyms and other businesses under new lockdown measures.

Boris Johnson has placed the UK on a police-enforced lockdown with drastic new measures in the fight against the coronavirus outbreak.

The Prime Minister ordered people only to leave their homes under a list of “very limited purposes”, banned public gatherings of anyone not from the same household and ordered the closure of non-essential shops.

Every citizen must comply with these new measures and the relevant authorities, including the police, have been given the powers to enforce them through fines and dispersing gatherings.

These measures were introduced on March 23, and theThese measures were introduced on March 23, and the Government had stated these measures would be reviewed after three weeks, and relaxed if the evidence showed this was possible….

Daily Express, 16 April 2020:

Britons furious as UK not testing 15,000-a-day arriving in UK airports: ‘Ridiculous!

MATT HANCOCK joined Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid on Good Morning Britain today in a heated discussion regarding the government’s current plans to continue to tackle coronavirus. However, fans were left furious as they heard the Health Secretary reveal that people are arriving in the UK from coronavirus hotspots and are not being tested for the deadly virus.

Good Morning Britain viewers were left furious today as Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed there was a distinct lack of testing at airports for people coming into the UK from coronavirus hotspots. Morgan and Hancock engaged in a very heated debate over the subject and viewers also hit out at the health secretary online.

After Reid quizzed Hancock on the government’s exit strategy for the end of the lockdown, Morgan was keen to ask whether those still arriving in the UK were being tested for Covid-19

Referencing the importance of testing, Morgan asked: “If it’s so crucial, why are we still having all our airports open, flying in from coronavirus hotspots like New York, like Italy, like China.

“It doesn’t make sense to me that we are allowing tens of thousands of people to come into our airports and walk into our communities without even a basic test.

“And given that we know that many people can be asymptomatic. Can you explain that?

“We do of course have different treatment from different places according to how serious the outbreak is-” Hancock began to respond.

But Morgan interrupted: “How many people are you testing at airports?

Hancock explained: “The number of people coming through has dropped very very dramatically and very low - 

“How many have come in this week?” Morgan interrupted.

“About 15,000,” Hancock replied, with Morgan hitting back: “So that’s about 15,000 a day without any test?”

Hancock’s admission left those watching at home furious and many took to Twitter to express their anger.

“#GMB @piersmorgan great question on why are all these people coming in from hotspots untested, why!!!? We will never get out of this going round in circles,” one viewer raged.

Another added: “So we all have to stay in our houses to stop the spread, everyday there’s videos of the police abusing their powers in the name of this ‘lockdown’ but they don’t mind 15,000 people a day flying into the country?” #GMB.

Daily Express 10 April 2020:

Coronavirus: Why UK borders will remain open despite ongoing coronavirus crisis

CORONAVIRUS has seen many countries around the world close their borders to help stop the spread of the deadly disease. Why hasn’t the UK closed its borders to all flights from other countries?

Today’s coronavirus daily briefing was led by Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock and tackled both the issues around PPE and travel. He was joined by epidemiology expert and Deputy Chief Medical Officer Professor Jonathan Stafford Nguyen Van-Tam and Chief nursing officer for England, Ruth May.

Today, Mr Hancock was asked more about why the UK is not completely closing its borders like other countries such as the US.

LBC News’ Ben Kentish asked: “Many people around the country, are asking why the UK is continuing to allow people to enter the country from virus hotspots and planes to land without the people on those planes even being tested or asked to quarantine.

“Isn’t there a real risk that once we do pass the peak, all the efforts that we have made to reduce the number of cases will be undermined by people continuing to come into the country unchecked from other countries where the number of cases is still much higher?

“What measures will you put in place to stop that?”

Mr Hancock said that the UK is “following the science”.

He said: “The answer to both of those questions is the same which is that we follow the science.

“And we follow the science in terms of international travel all along and we saw right at the start of this pandemic that the two countries who brought in the draconian travel restrictions - the US and Italy - both of them have not got serious problems themselves.

“So I think that the science which we followed on international travel has been borne out by events.”

He then turned to Professor Van-Tam who discussed the reasons for not closing the borders more in-depth.

He said: “Our scientists have been very clear from the outset that that would not work as a measure to prevent the ingress of coronavirus into the UK.

“Coronavirus is now in the UK and transmitting very widely.

“I understand that point you’re making and I see where you’re coming from in terms of when we get this under control, ‘doesn’t that change the situation?’

But we won’t go from a position of widespread community transmission amongst our own people to a position of zero transmission amongst our own people.

“Which of course was the case back in December 2019.

“We will likely go back to low levels of transmission and the virus will continue to be here and around us in our communities, I suspect for a very long time.

“Even if we can keep the levels right down.

“So from that perspective, I hope that adds a bit of sense to the context of the question on travel.”

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s latest advice for travel was updated on April 8.

They have no said that non-essential travel abroad has been prohibited “indefinitely”.

The FCO are also advising British people travelling abroad to return to the UK now, if commercial flights are still available.

The Government has provided up to £75million to help Britons to buy tickets for special charter flights to return home from priority countries.