SIR - Is it just me ,or does anyone else think that letting people who have returning from Italy/Iran etc to just come into the country and mix with members of the general public is a little foolhardy?

By the time the symptoms occur about 14 days later just how many people can they have infected?

My husband and I are usually just returning from northern Italy at this time of year, having travelled by bus, stopping of at various places for meals, coffee ,and comfort breaks, then boarding a ferry, travelling to a drop-off point then boarding another bus with people who have been on holiday to various other countries to travel back to our local destinations. The mind boggles.

We would have found it very inconvenient to have had to go into quarantine as we have commitments at home, like most people, but I would have thought it was for the greater good and unavoidable.

True, it would take a lot of organising to find room for so many people, but it would also have cut down massively on the number of people who would be needing beds in hospital.

Have we missed the boat?

Patricia Ellis, St John's Crescent, Bradford