The United Kingdom Prime Minister announced that starting Sunday, January 9 at 04:00GMT, all travellers arriving into the country will be exempt to present a pre-departure PCR test and only will be required to present a cheaper antigen test on day two after arrival.
Also, those travellers that have a complete vaccination scheme will not be required to self-isolate while waiting for test results. A PCR test will only be required if this day two test result is positive.
PM Boris Johnson stated after a cabinet meeting that pre-departure tests «discourage many from travelling for fear of being trapped overseas and incurring significant extra expense».
The change in measures seems to be in response to many claims made by the tourism industry, airlines and other actors that consider that the prevalence of Omicron variant in recent covid cases surge renders the pre-departure testing irrelevant, while the continuity of restrictive measures is financially disastrous.
Manchester Airports Group’s Chief of Staff told BBC’s Today programme that «We are beyond the point where international travel restrictions can play a role in managing that peak and if there is no benefit to it then we shouldn’t be doing it and we should take those measures out.»
