The Government has hit back at calls to replace travel quarantine measures with a new testing regime at airports.
The boss of Heathrow Airport is among those urging ministers to end the 14-day self-isolation period for people arriving in the UK from countries suffering higher rates of coronavirus.
One mooted idea is for passengers to be tested on arrival before being tested again a number of days later to confirm they are not infected with Covid-19.
Heathrow’s chief executive John Holland-Kaye said on Wednesday: "The UK needs a passenger testing regime and fast. Without it, Britain is just playing a game of quarantine roulette."
But Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden has rejected the proposal as a “viable alternative” to the 14-day quarantine.
"There's not a silver bullet of just testing immediately at the border," he told the BBC.
Mr Dowden stressed that the virus can “incubate over a period of time” meaning a negative test on arrival does not mean the passenger will not develop symptoms later.
“If we could avoid imposing quarantine in a way that it was safe to do so, of course, we would do that – that is why we keep it under review,” he said.
But, he added: “We are not at the point where there is a viable alternative to the 14-day quarantine.
“There is a real risk here – the virus is spreading, it’s rising rapidly around the world.
“We need to ensure that the measures we’ve taken in the UK – which have been very difficult – to keep this virus under control, do not go to waste because we allow cases to come in from elsewhere.”
But Mr Holland-Kaye argued that the country had to find a way of keeping Britons safe while getting the economy going again.
He told the BBC: "We are an island nation - we cannot cut ourselves off from the world for the foreseeable future.
"We've got to find a way of keeping people safe from a second wave but also getting the economy going again."
Heathrow’s passenger numbers were down 96 per cent year on year between April and June.
It made a pre-tax loss of £1.1 billion in the first six months of 2020, down from a £7 million profit in the same period a year ago.
This came on revenue of £712 million, around half of 2019’s levels.
Mr Holland-Kaye said: “Today’s results should serve as a clarion call for the Government – the UK needs a passenger testing regime and fast. Without it, Britain is just playing a game of quarantine roulette.
“As many of our customers have experienced, it’s difficult to plan a holiday that way, let alone run a business.
“Testing offers a way to safely open up travel and trade to some of the UK’s biggest markets which currently remain closed.
“Our European competitors are racing ahead with passenger testing. If the UK doesn’t act soon global Britain will be nothing more than a campaign slogan.”
He said a two-tiered testing programme would be an effective way to cut the self-isolation period.
The first test would be conducted at the airport, and the second test at a health facility five to eight days later.
Preliminary modelling from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine suggests that 94 per cent of cases would be detected if the quarantine period was cut to eight days and passengers tested negative on the seventh.