The British Government defended this Thursday the announcement to relax the measures for travelers entering England and maintained that, with the Omicron variant of coronavirus so widespread, testing to detect it “is no longer useful” because the proportion of positive cases that arrive from abroad is completely miniscule compared to the numbers in the UK.
“Omicron is global, it is global, everyone has it now, the proportion that comes from abroad is completely miniscule compared to the numbers that are here,” Transportation Minister Grant Shapps told Sky News television.
“So it is now very widespread and in a sense the Omicron tests are no longer useful, so we can withdraw them from international travel, before entering the UK,” he said.
Faced with the strong spread of Omicron, the British Government announced on Wednesday the end of restrictions on travel from abroad imposed to protect the country from that variant of the coronavirus, much more contagious but apparently less lethal.
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– Boris Johnson (@BorisJohnson) January 5, 2022
Prime Minister Boris Johnson explained to Parliament that now that the Omicron variant is so dominant, these measures have only a limited impact on increasing the number of cases, while they continue to cause significant costs to the tourism industry.
New measures
As of Friday, travelers will no longer have to present a negative coronavirus test before boarding for England and, if they are vaccinated, they will not have to isolate themselves while waiting for the result of a PCR test performed on arrival.
Instead, they will have to undergo, as was the case before Omicron’s appearance in December, to a antigen test within two days of arrival, he specified.
Meanwhile, the Government announced that plan B of the coronavirus rules that include mandatory face masks in closed places and transport, as well as telework, will continue for a few weeks more until January 26, where a review of those regulations will be made.
