In the first major move towards restriction-free living, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced that fully vaccinated travellers will no longer be required to take COVID-19 tests upon entry.
No COVID-19 test for fully vaccinated travellers at UK arrivals
The prime minister unveiled the news to a group of reporters during his oversight visit to the Academic Centre, Milton Keynes Hospital, per Sky News.
Johnson, it’s believed, made the call after facing immense pressure from the higher-ups in the tourism and airlines industries.
“We have, thanks to the tough decisions, the big calls that we made… the most open economy and society in Europe. And although we have to be cautious, we are now moving through the Omicron wave, and you can see the figures are starting to get better.
“So what we’re doing on travel, to show that this country is open for business, open for travellers, you will see changes so that people arriving no longer have to take tests if they have been vaccinated, if they have been double vaccinated,” he said.
No more mask mandate in England
For fully vaccinated travellers with plans to visit England in summer (winter in South Africa), news of the scrapped COVID-19 tests will be welcomed.
Moreover, the UK will, from Thursday 27 January 2022, do away with the face mask mandate, a clear indication of Johnson’s intention of returning England’s travel sector to 2019 heights.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) still warns about the dangers of adopting relaxed regulations at this uncertain period of the pandemic.
“[COVID-19 remains very, very dangerous. It can also mutate and form variants and we’ve seen several but we know there are more not far away,” the health advisory group warned.
