Mr. Jim Breslin:

I mentioned testing earlier. The ECDC advice is that the evidence base for that testing is unclear. The PCR test does not detect the virus at all stages. The incubation period is between two and 14 days so a person could be a few days into the virus without the virus being present in his or her respiratory tract or nasal passage.

They consider when they get symptoms that they are Covid-free when in fact they are not, so there are difficulties with implementing that type of an arrangement because before travel or as people arrive in the airport they could have contracted it en route but still not be shedding virus and be capable of being detected by the PCR test.