London: Vaccinated travelers can enter Britain Without any coronavirus tests starting Friday, after the government ended one of the last restrictions imposed in the past two years in response to Covid-19.
British residents and visitors who have had at least two doses of approved coronavirus Vaccination Now only one passenger locator form has to be filled before traveling UK,
Unvaccinated people still have to be tested before and after arrival, but they are not required to self-isolate until a negative result is received.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK “now has one of the most free-flowing borders in the world – sending a clear message that we are open for business.”
Airlines and other travel firms saw the change as a lifeline after two years of severely restricted travel.
Andrew Flintham, managing director of travel group Tui UK, said there is “a huge demand for international travel,” and people were rushing to book getaways for February’s school break and April’s Easter break.
Gatwick, London’s second busiest airport, said next month it plans to reopen the second of its two terminals, which have been closed since June 2020.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle urged other countries to follow Britain’s “practical approach”.
But some scientists worry that the government is moving too fast. Prime Minister boris johnsonThe U.S. Conservative government lifted most of the domestic rules last month.
Face masks are no longer mandatory in most indoor venues in England, vaccine passports to gain entry to nightclubs and mass programs were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home.
Other parts of the UK – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – have also lifted most restrictions.
Johnson announced this week that he expects to lift the final restriction – mandatory self-isolation for people who test positive – by the end of February as part of a plan to live longer with Covid-19.
Officials have said the government plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus like the flu as it becomes endemic in the country.
Scientists expressed surprise at Johnson’s announcement. Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London, said it was “a political rather than a scientific kind of statement.”
“There is some logic to this and other countries are doing the same, but it is clearly a race for the government to say that Britain is first, Britain is the first to get out, Britain has conquered Omicron. ‘Our booster program is the world beating etc, etc,’ he told Times Radio.
Despite an Omicron-driven slowdown at the end of the year, the UK economy grew by a higher-than-expected 7.5% in 2021, according to data that re-opened.
The re-imposition of some restrictions in response to the highly permeable version led to a 0.2% contraction in December.
The Office for National Statistics said growth followed a 9.4% contraction in 2020 as the pandemic shut down large parts of the economy. The UK economy is now back in shape it was in February 2020, just before the new coronavirus hit the UK.
Britain has Europe’s highest coronavirus toll after Russia, with more than 159,000 officially recorded deaths. The country has seen a decline in both new infections and hospitalized Covid-19 patients since the peak of the omicron spike in early January.
Officials have credited the government’s booster jab program for preventing a surge in omicron cases from causing serious stress to UK hospitals.
In the UK, 84.6% of people 12 and over have received two doses of the vaccine and about two-thirds have received a third, booster shot.
British residents and visitors who have had at least two doses of approved coronavirus Vaccination Now only one passenger locator form has to be filled before traveling UK,
Unvaccinated people still have to be tested before and after arrival, but they are not required to self-isolate until a negative result is received.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the UK “now has one of the most free-flowing borders in the world – sending a clear message that we are open for business.”
Airlines and other travel firms saw the change as a lifeline after two years of severely restricted travel.
Andrew Flintham, managing director of travel group Tui UK, said there is “a huge demand for international travel,” and people were rushing to book getaways for February’s school break and April’s Easter break.
Gatwick, London’s second busiest airport, said next month it plans to reopen the second of its two terminals, which have been closed since June 2020.
British Airways chief executive Sean Doyle urged other countries to follow Britain’s “practical approach”.
But some scientists worry that the government is moving too fast. Prime Minister boris johnsonThe U.S. Conservative government lifted most of the domestic rules last month.
Face masks are no longer mandatory in most indoor venues in England, vaccine passports to gain entry to nightclubs and mass programs were scrapped, as was the official advice to work from home.
Other parts of the UK – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – have also lifted most restrictions.
Johnson announced this week that he expects to lift the final restriction – mandatory self-isolation for people who test positive – by the end of February as part of a plan to live longer with Covid-19.
Officials have said the government plans to switch from legal restrictions to advisory measures and treat the coronavirus like the flu as it becomes endemic in the country.
Scientists expressed surprise at Johnson’s announcement. Tim Spector, an epidemiologist at King’s College London, said it was “a political rather than a scientific kind of statement.”
“There is some logic to this and other countries are doing the same, but it is clearly a race for the government to say that Britain is first, Britain is the first to get out, Britain has conquered Omicron. ‘Our booster program is the world beating etc, etc,’ he told Times Radio.
Despite an Omicron-driven slowdown at the end of the year, the UK economy grew by a higher-than-expected 7.5% in 2021, according to data that re-opened.
The re-imposition of some restrictions in response to the highly permeable version led to a 0.2% contraction in December.
The Office for National Statistics said growth followed a 9.4% contraction in 2020 as the pandemic shut down large parts of the economy. The UK economy is now back in shape it was in February 2020, just before the new coronavirus hit the UK.
Britain has Europe’s highest coronavirus toll after Russia, with more than 159,000 officially recorded deaths. The country has seen a decline in both new infections and hospitalized Covid-19 patients since the peak of the omicron spike in early January.
Officials have credited the government’s booster jab program for preventing a surge in omicron cases from causing serious stress to UK hospitals.
In the UK, 84.6% of people 12 and over have received two doses of the vaccine and about two-thirds have received a third, booster shot.
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