The United Kingdom government has dropped the requirement for fully vaccinated passengers traveling to England to take a negative COVID-19 test before travel and isolate on arrival. The move was brought in to slow the Omicron variant’s spread to the UK, though the new variant has since become the dominant variant within the country.
The Omicron variant has created headaches for travelers and airlines alike. Some airlines have slashed their January schedules as a result. However, it seems as though traveling to the UK is set to get a whole lot easier as Omicron-related travel restrictions are relaxed.
Pre-Departure tests scrapped
The UK government has scrapped its policy of requiring pre-departure travel tests. This means that fully vaccinated individuals won’t have to provide evidence of a negative COVID-19 test before boarding a flight to the UK if they land in England after 04:00 on Friday. Of course, testing for arrivals will remain, though the rules for this have also become more straightforward.
Currently, all arrivals to the UK must take a PCR test by the end of day two after arrival and must self-isolate until the result of this test has come back negative. The government brought these rules in to allow the government to catch imported omicron cases before they could start circulating in the community.
These rules have been relaxed back to how they were before the arrival of the Omicron variant. That is to say, fully vaccinated arrivals won’t need to self-isolate from 04:00 on Friday and will only need to take a private lateral flow day two test if arriving after 04:00 on Sunday (NHS tests are not accepted). Of course, unvaccinated arrivals will still face more substantial restrictions, including quarantine, as was the case before the arrival of COVID-19.
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Why change the rules?
The new COVID-19 rules were brought in to slow the arrival of Omicron into the UK. The idea was that carriers would be able to be identified before mixing with the community. Unfortunately, it seems like it didn’t work as well as hoped, with the Omicron variant quickly becoming the dominant variant within the United Kingdom.
✈️INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL UPDATE ✈️
We're removing the temporary extra testing measures we introduced last year at the border to slow cases of Omicron coming to the UK. Now Omicron is the dominant variant & is widespread in the UK, these measures are no longer proportionate [1/6]
— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) January 5, 2022
As the now dominant variant, the UK government doesn’t gain any additional bonus from trying to keep Omicron out. The country’s high number of cases also means that there is statistically more of a risk of travelers taking COVID-19 out of the country than into the country.
Virgin Atlantic’s CEO is happy with the rules. Commenting on the change, Shai Weiss remarked,
“The removal of pre-departure testing before travel to the UK and costly PCR testing upon arrival is welcome progress and a necessary step towards frictionless air travel for our customers… vital testing capacity can be reallocated where it is needed the most – in hospitals, schools and crucial national infrastructure.”
What do you make of the rule changes? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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