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UK coronavirus LIVE: Quarantine 'failures let in 10,000 infected people' as death toll jumps by 65

AFP via Getty Images
AFP via Getty Images

The Government’s “critical” failure to bring in travel quarantine restrictions at the start of the coronavirus pandemic allowed thousands of infected people to arrive in the UK, a report by MPs has found.

Some 10,000 people with Covid-19 may have entered or returned to the country in March, according to the Commons Home Affairs Committee review, which condemned Downing Street’s “inexplicable decision” to lift all border restrictions in the same month.

The damning assessment comes as ministers were urged to sacrifice pubs, restaurants and non-essential shops to enable schools to reopen if a second wave of the virus hits.

Meanwhile, Nicola Sturgeon has reimposed strict lockdown measures in Aberdeen, and laws enforcing restrictions across towns in northern England have come into force following a spike in localised infections.

It comes as the number of people who have died after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK has jumped by 65.

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