Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that all countries are to be removed from England’s red list from 0400 tomorrow morning (December 15).
The red list was reintroduced in November due to the outbreak of the Omicron variant, and currently includes the countries of Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The rising cases of Omicron in the UK, however, mean that the travel restrictions from the 11 countries have lost their purpose in containing the variant.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Sajid Javid told the Commons:
“Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad.”
As it stands, UK arrivals from red list countries must undergo a ten-day quarantine in a government-approved hotel. When questioned on whether those currently in quarantine hotels would be able to leave isolation early, Javid said:
“I am told that the practice in the past has been requiring them to complete their quarantine period. However, I do understand the importance of that. I have asked for urgent advice about what this means and I hope to act very quickly on just that.”
While travel restrictions have eased with regards to destinations, the testing measures for all UK arrivals will remain in place. This means that travellers will still have to take a PCR or lateral flow test within 48 hours before arriving in England, and will also have to take a Day 2 PCR test and self-isolate until they receive the results.
These measures will be reviewed in the first week of January, according to Shapps. In a tweet, he added:
“As always, we keep all our travel measures under review and we may impose new restrictions should there be a need to do so to protect public health.”
Clive Wratten, CEO of the Business Travel Association, commented on the latest news:
“We welcome the news that all countries have been removed from the UK’s red list. However, this does not go nearly far enough to help the beleaguered travel industry. The onerous testing requirements are severely hampering business and leisure travel.
“The BTA urges the Government to work with the industry to create effective plans for future variants and a tailored package of support as we remain the only sector operating under restrictions.”
Joss Croft, CEO of UK Inbound, added:
“We are pleased that all 11 countries are to be removed from the red list, however the UK testing requirements for vaccinated international arrivals continue to stifle businesses across the inbound tourism industry, which employs over 500,000 Brits. The health secretary acknowledged that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK, that it is fast becoming the dominant variant and that the justification for our travel restrictions are minimal. This negates the need for PCR testing and sequencing. The Government needs to further act on these comments and immediately scrap day 2 PCR tests and quarantine on arrival.”
