HOME Secretary Priti Patel has been called on by the SNP to introduce urgent border health checks and quarantine measures for people travelling to the UK in light of the coronavirus outbreak.

Joanna Cherry, the party’s home affairs spokeswoman, who has made the call, says a failure to act by the UK Government has resulted in hundreds of thousands of people having entered the UK without the appropriate checks since the pandemic began.

The concern follows an exclusive report by The Herald, which showed more than 8,000 visitors a week continue to arrive in Scotland from home and abroad without health checks despite the lockdown restrictions.

While other countries have brought in levels of testing and quarantining for arrivals, there are no such measures at UK airports.

In a letter to Ms Patel, Ms Cherry calls on the Government to bring the UK into line with other countries with tighter border measures.

She points out she raised the matter with the Home Secretary two weeks ago when she was told that the current strategy was based on advice from Public Health England.

But the MP for Edinburgh South West notes: “Nothing has changed over the past 10 days and this weekend it has been reported that over 260,000 passengers continue to arrive in the UK on a weekly basis with 8,000 of those arriving at Scottish airports.”

Referring to the introduction of a system of testing, contract tracing and isolation, she proposes Covid-19 assessment points should be set up after Border Control with health checks, including virus testing and instructions and advice for quarantine as a condition for admission to the UK.

Ms Cherry says in her letter: “I fully accept that health checks, even testing, would not catch every case of the virus that comes into the UK before communication. However, given the rate of transmission of this virus, any significant interruption of the chain of transmission would seem to be worthwhile.

“Moreover, I am sure that border health control measures of the sort adopted by other countries might also serve to increase public confidence and support for the general approach as we move towards consideration of the conditions for a relaxing of lockdown.”

Ms Cherry said it was “deeply concerning” that the Home Secretary had failed to act and thousands of people were still being allowed to enter the UK without appropriate checks and measures in place.

She pointed out that the UK was an “outlier” given the border measures introduced by other countries in Europe and across the world.

“The UK Government has been far too slow to act and must now step up to prevent an increased risk of transmission,” declared Ms Cherry.

"For people to have confidence in the UK Government's approach, it is crucial they put these long-overdue measures in place and set out how this will form part of a considered exit strategy."

The Home Office has been approached for a response.