Posted: Posted July 21, 2021 / 4:51 am CDT / Has been updated: July 21, 2021 / 4:51 am CDT

London (AP) —British border guards have been instructed to stop regularly checking whether travelers from many countries are negative for COVID-19, the British media said. I reported on Wednesday.

The change aims to reduce waiting times for airport immigration, but there is growing concern about importing new cases of coronavirus when domestic infection rates are already skyrocketing. The Guardian reported.

The new policy applies to people arriving from countries on the so-called green and amber list. This is two layers of the government’s foreign travel signaling system, where travelers from France need to be quarantined despite being an amber country, but do not have to reach the quarantine. ..

The government refused to comment on the leak, but the airline emphasized that passengers had a negative COVID-19 test and needed to make sure they filled out the passenger locator form before boarding the aircraft. ..

Lucy Morton, a union expert on behalf of border, migrant and customs workers, said border forces staff were also told not to challenge the COVID document.

“Sure, it significantly reduces cueing time and, hopefully, the level of verbal abuse suffered by border force staff,” Morton told the BBC. “Welcome to us. The impact on UK COVID security is ultimately a scientific decision.”