This requirement will apply to all visitors to the UK and returning residents, whether vaccinated or not, and will take effect next Tuesday at 4 a.m. Tests must be completed within 48 hours of departure.
Also, as of Monday morning, Nigeria will be placed on the travel red list, which means that only UK and Irish citizens and UK residents will be able to enter the country, but they will be subject to a 10-day paid quarantine in one of the designated hotels upon arrival. Due to the discovery of the Omikron variant in southern Africa, six countries were initially added to the red list (South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Lesotho, and Eswatini), and four more were added last Sunday (Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, and Zambia).
Javid acknowledged that the changes were “extremely unfortunate” for people who had already planned to travel, but explained that it was due to “the rising number of travel-related infections.” He emphasised that the new requirements are only temporary. “We want to lift them as soon as possible,” the minister said, adding that “vaccines will continue to be our first line of defence.”
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