Prime Minister Boris Johnson says that as the Omicron cases continue to fall it is time to open up the country fully for business and travel.
COVID tests for fully vaccinated travellers arriving in England are being scrapped, Prime Minister – Boris Johnson has confirmed. It comes after the chief executives of the UK’s largest airlines urged the government to end coronavirus-related travel restrictions. The bosses pointed to evidence that the Omicron variant is in retreat, and argued that current measures have a “limited effect” in preventing the spread of COVID-19.
Speaking to broadcasters during a visit to the Academic Centre, Milton Keynes Hospital, the prime minister said: “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.”
Johan Lundgren, easyJet’s chief executive, said: “We welcome this news knowing that millions of our customers will also be delighted to see the return of restriction-free travel in the UK. We now look ahead to what we believe will be a strong summer.
“We believe testing for travel should now firmly become a thing of the past. It is clear travel restrictions did not materially slow the spread of Omicron in the UK and so it is important that there are no more knee-jerk reactions to future variants.
“We commend the government for removing all testing. easyJet plans to return to near 2019 levels of flying this summer and so we can’t wait to welcome our customers back onboard.”
From Thursday, COVID passports and the mandatory wearing of face masks are being scrapped in England – and people are no longer being told to work from home.
Speaking to Sky News, the World Health Organisation’s special envoy for COVID, Dr David Nabarro, described the virus as “very nasty and rather cunning” – and said it should not be treated like the flu.
Warning that coronavirus remains “very, very dangerous”, he added: “It can also mutate and form variants and we’ve seen several but we know there are more not far away.”
Source: Sky News