Health officials fail to alert over 200 UK holidaymakers and Wizz Air after cluster of coronavirus cases

UK officials are now attempting to trace all passengers on the flight from Crete to London Luton Airport

Scotland and Wales both imposed quarantine restrictions on arrivals from Greece on 1 September (istock)

UK health authorities failed to contact more than 200 British holidaymakers and Wizz Air officials after eight passengers on a recent flight tested positive for coronavirus.

The group of teenagers were diagnosed after returning to the UK on a Wizz Air flight to London Luton on 25 August from the Greek island of Crete.

The positive test results should have triggered an urgent response to locate all 204 passengers on the flight and alert Wizz Air, yet the budget airline said it was only made aware of the incident when approached by The Guardian.

“Wizz Air was not made aware that eight passengers who travelled on the 8168 flight from Heraklion to London-Luton on 25 August had since tested positive for Covid-19,“ the airline said in a statement.

“The airline has now informed the relevant health authorities in England who are responsible for contacting and advising the 204 other passengers. Wizz Air operates all flights in compliance with local travel regulations, and the safety of passengers and staff is the number one priority.”

The UK’s test-and-trace programme aims to contact 80 per cent of infected people and 80 per cent of their close contacts within 48 hours, but has failed to reach its headline target for nine weeks running.

Unlike other countries, the UK does not routinely test returning travellers for the virus, creating a heavy reliance on track-and-trace to contact people within the recommended time frame.

Damian Stafford, 52, whose son was among the teenagers who tested positive, said he had still not been contacted and told to isolate by NHS test and trace nearly a week after his son’s positive test. “It just seemed like a shocking lack of response really,” he said.

The new cluster of cases puts additional pressure on the government to impose quarantine measures on arrivals from Greece, following the introduction of restrictions from the country by Scotland and Wales on 1 September.

Despite the aviation industry making repeated calls to implement testing at airports, the government has claimed it is logistically difficult and risks missing cases.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson told The Independent: “We are aware of a number of cases on this flight and action has been taken to advise those that need to self-isolate to do so.

“NHS Test and Trace is working – hundreds of thousands people are being tested every day and to make sure we stay in control of this virus, we are targeting our testing capacity at the areas that need it most, including those where there is an outbreak as well as prioritising at-risk groups.

“There is a high demand for tests, but more appointments and home testing kits are available every day and we are increasing capacity to 500,000 tests a day by the end of October. Anyone with symptoms across the UK should get a test as soon as possible as well as washing hands regularly, wearing face coverings and following social distancing rules to stop the spread of the virus.”