Dr. Ronan Glynn:

The reason for the increasing concern on the Delta variant is that it now accounts for over 90% of cases in the UK. In the past few weeks, we have seen a deteriorating situation there, with a 50% increase, week on week, in the number of cases reported across the UK, with a doubling time in some regions of less than a week. We have seen an increase of 15% in hospitalisation, week on week, over the past couple of weeks. That all gives us cause for concern.

Of course, the ultimate measure is to stop travel. That is the only way we can entirely eliminate risk. The next option is to institute a quarantine period of a full 14 days. The next option after that is to decide on a regime that allows release from quarantine based on testing. The recommended approach now in relation to overseas arrivals from Britain is that they should have a negative PCR test prior to departure, a not-detected test again at day five, post arrival, and a further not-detected test at day ten. That is obviously for people who are not fully vaccinated arriving here from Great Britain.