Pat Stevens/
The UK government today announced that all countries, including Nigeria, will be removed from its international travel red list from 4am tomorrow because Omicron is already running rampant in the UK.
The Health Secretary, Sajid Javid, told the House of Commons that the change has been made because there is domestic community transmission of the variant and it is also spreading “widely across the world”, MailOnline reports.
As a result he said the red list is “now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad” and hotel quarantine will therefore be shelved.
Apart from Nigeria, other countries on the list are, Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The decision was reportedly taken at a meeting of the Cabinet’s Covid-19 operations (Covid-O) committee.
The red list was reintroduced last month following the emergence of Omicron in order to prevent importing cases into the UK.
Despite the change on the red list, tougher travel testing rules introduced in response to the variant will remain in place.
“So I can announce today that whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel, we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list, effective from 4am tomorrow morning,” Javid said.
People arriving in the UK from red list countries must currently spend 11 nights in a quarantine hotel at a cost of £2,285 for solo travellers.
Removing all 11 countries from the list will mean that ministers will once again mothball the hotel quarantine system.
However, it is unclear what the change will mean for people who are already in a quarantine hotel having arrived from one of the banned nations.
Other rules introduced due to Omicron fears included requiring fully-vaccinated travellers entering the UK to take a pre-departure test, and to self-isolate until they receive a negative result from a post-arrival PCR test.
These rules will remain in place for the moment.
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