Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of requiring PCR testing for inward bound travel into the UK to identify residual infection from previous covid-19 illnesses and necessitate additional isolation periods for recovered individuals.

No assessment has been made. It is possible for polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests to remain positive for some time after infection despite the individual not being infectious. Anyone who has previously received a positive PCR test result should not be re-tested within 90 days, unless they develop any new symptoms of COVID-19.