UK is scrapping all remaining Covid-10 travel restrictions. Hereafter there will be no need for Covid-19 test, even if they are not fully vaccinated. This was confirmed by Transport secretary, Grant Shapps. He said that all remaining Covid-19 travel measures will be scrapped in the coming days.
In a tweet he said: “All remaining Covid travel measures, including the Passenger Locator Form and tests for all arrivals, will be stood down for travel to the UK from 4am on 18 March. These changes are possible due to our vaccine rollout and mean greater freedom in time for Easter.”
Presently everyone travelling to the UK must complete a passenger locator form before they arrive. Travellers who are not fully vaccinated have to take a Covid-19 test before departure, fill in the form and book and pay for a PCR test after arriving.
His announcement means that passengers who are not fully vaccinated will no longer have to take Covid-19 tests before and after travelling to the UK. The passenger locator form will no longer be necessary either.People planning an overseas trip will still need to be aware of other countries’ entry rules.
Welcoming the announcement, Dale Keller, chief executive of BAR UK said: “This is a truly significant milestone and passengers, and airlines will be delighted that the passenger locator form is banished now that international travel into the UK will be harmonised with the domestic reopening.
“We applaud this pragmatic decision by ministers to restore freedom of international travel by removing all remaining Covid-19 related border measures as evidence became overwhelming that border measures were largely ineffective in reducing the transmission of Covid-19,” he added.
The government has previously said it is working on contingency plans to deal with any new strains of the virus in future. These are expected to be revealed before the holidays in April.
Earlier, Airports Council International (ACI) has joined with the International Air Transport Association (IATA) to call for all remaining Covid-19 restrictions applying to intra-EU and Schengen area travel to be dropped.
This includes all testing requirements, the need to present proof of vaccination or complete a passenger locator form. The organisations also want to see mask-wearing scrapped for travel within or between states where it is no longer required in other indoor environments.
Covid-19, and specifically the Omicron variant, is now pervasive throughout all of Europe, and population immunity is at such levels that the “risk of hospitalisation or death has dramatically reduced,” especially for vaccinated people, IATA argued.
