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LONDON (Reuters) -The British government will remove all 11 countries from its COVID-19 travel red list from Wednesday because there is now community transmission of Omicron in Britain, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told parliament.
The new Omicron variant was first detected in southern Africa and Hong Kong. The British government added 11 African countries to its red list from late November, meaning that only UK citizens or residents arriving from those nations were allowed in and then had to quarantine in a hotel.
“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,” Javid said.
“We will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4 a.m. tomorrow morning.”
The 11 countries which will be removed are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Britain has registered more than 4,700 cases of Omicron, with 10 people hospitalised, and one person has died after contracting the variant. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday Britain was facing a “huge spike” in Omicron cases.
Travel companies had urged the government to reduce restrictions as soon as possible. London’s Heathrow Airport said last week it was seeing high levels of business travellers cancelling due to concerns over restrictions.
Britain will still require all inbound travellers to take either a PCR or a rapid lateral flow test a maximum of 48 hours before departure, a measure Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said would be reviewed in the first week of January.
Mark Tanzer, Chief Executive of travel association ABTA, welcomed the removal of the red list but said testing should also have been scrapped.
“With the testing measures now extending over the Christmas and New Year period, and the industry quickly approaching peak-booking season for summer 2022, travel businesses are facing a very serious situation,” he said in a statement.
“Consumer confidence in travel has suffered a significant setback, which will outlast these restrictions.”
Arrivals from the red list countries have had to pay thousands of pounds to quarantine in government-approved hotels. Many have complained on social media about the costs and conditions of their stay.
A lack of available rooms also left some people trapped abroad waiting for space to become available in the hotels.
(Reporting by Kylie MacLellan and Elizabeth Piper; editing by Guy Faulconbridge, Paul Sandle and Gareth Jones)
Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.
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(Reuters) – Air travellers to the United States will face tougher COVID-19 testing rules to try to slow the spread of the Omicron variant as other countries tighten border controls.
Following is a snapshot by region of major travel curbs reported by Reuters.
BRAZIL will shut its borders to travellers arriving from six southern African countries, the chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro said.
CANADA is closing its borders to foreign travellers who have recently been to seven southern African nations.
CUBA will tighten restrictions from Dec. 4 on passengers from some African countries.
ECUADOR will impose entry restrictions on travellers flying from or via a number of African countries and will request vaccine certificates from those arriving from other countries.
The UNITED STATES, which has barred nearly all foreign nationals who have been in one of eight southern African countries, issued a directive requiring airlines to disclose names and other information of passengers who have been there.
AUSTRALIA has delayed by two weeks its plans to reopen its borders to skilled migrants and foreign students. Mandatory two-week quarantine has been enforced for citizens returning from southern African countries.
CAMBODIA has banned entry to travellers from 10 African countries.
The Chinese-ruled territory of HONG KONG will ban non-residents from entering the city from Japan, Portugal and Sweden, adding to a fast-expanding list of countries facing travel restrictions.
INDIA will make on-arrival COVID-19 testing mandatory for air travellers from more than a dozen countries, including South Africa and Britain.
JAPAN Airlines and ANA halted new reservations and the government widened a travel ban. Japan took some of the strictest steps globally on Nov. 29 by closing its borders to new foreign entrants for about a month.
MALAYSIA has temporarily banned the entry of travellers from countries that have reported the Omicron variant or are considered high-risk.
Travellers to RUSSIA from countries with high risk of the Omicron variant will have to quarantine for two weeks.
THAILAND said it would ban the entry of people travelling from eight African countries.
UZBEKISTAN said it would suspend flights with Hong Kong, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Eswatini, Tanzania and South Africa from Dec. 3.
VIETNAM will suspend flights to and from seven African countries.
The EUROPEAN UNION needs daily reviews of its travel restrictions and rapid deployment of vaccine booster doses to limit entry and protect its citizens from the Omicron variant, the European Commission said.
Most EU countries have imposed travel bans for residents of South Africa AND surrounding countries.
The UNITED KINGDOM has barred entry to non-residents from 10 southern African states, and British and Irish residents arriving from those countries must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.
ISRAEL on Nov. 27 became the first country to shut its borders completely in response to Omicron, and said it would use counter-terrorism phone-tracking technology in order to contain the variant’s spread. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the ban would last 14 days.
(Reporting by Reuters bureaus; compiled by Nick Macfie, Editing by William Maclean)
Copyright 2021 Thomson Reuters.