Booster jabs come into play with the new requirements.
Under the reported government plans to lift all travel restrictions this month in the UK, vaccinated, travellers are free to travel without taking covid tests on their return.
According to The Sunday Times, transport secretary Grant Shapps is set to ditch the testing requirements for people who are fully vaccinated in time for the February half-term break.
It is reportedly scheduled that an announcement of the relaxed testing regime is set for 26 January; plan B restrictions are expected to be lifted by the prime minister Boris Johnson, including working from home and masks on public transport and shops.
Under the current requirements, travellers must take a lateral flow test two days after returning from Britain; if you test positive, you will have to isolate for ten days, but it can be reduced with negative lateral flow tests on days six and seven. It is said that the isolation period will be reduced to five days for people who are fully vaccinated and following an announcement from Sajid Javid this week.
A source close to Mr Shapps told The Sunday Times: “We are looking at removing all Covid tests for vaccinated travellers by the end of January, which is likely to coincide with the review of the plan B measures on 26 January.”
This change will be positive for the travel industry since the testing rules have been complicating the situation. In December, 600,000 passengers cancelled plans to fly from Heathrow due to the rise of Omicron Coronavirus and because of the travel restrictions that were very strict, the airport said.
The decision of stopping pre-departure tests this month led to a 200 per cent rise in easyJet bookings, while British Airways had holiday searches that rose by nearly 40 per cent, with New York, Dubai and Barbados being the most famous destinations.
This spring, ministers are expected to update fully vaccinated status, adding the third jab into the picture, leaving those who ignored the booster reliant on tests if they want to travel.
The lowest daily number of new coronavirus cases in the past month was reported on Friday in the UK. It was a total of 81,713, being the lowest count since 15 December. Experts believe the fall in the Covid cases looks positive and that the spread of the Omicron variant is “stabilising”.
Coronavirus cases appear to be “plateauing” in London, the southeast, and the east of England, says Susan Hopkins, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) chief medical adviser.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today that programme cases were still high, with almost one in 15 people in England being infected and one in 20 elsewhere in the UK, but as per the count on the hospital admissions, there was a “slow down”.
Prof Julian Hiscox, chairman in infection and global health at the University of Liverpool, told the BBC: “We’re almost there; it is now the beginning of the end, at least in the UK. I think life in 2022 will be almost back to before the pandemic.”
