UK Announces New Travel Rules, Removed Pre-Departure Testing For Vaccinated Travelers Starting Jan 09

The Govt of the United Kingdom (UK) has announced that starting from 4 am on Sunday 9 January, all eligible fully vaccinated travelers and over 5s will be able to take a lateral flow test instead of a PCR on or before day 2 of their arrival in England.

Lateral flow tests for travel can be booked from Friday 7 January and taken upon arrival, by the end of day 2.

Eligible fully vaccinated passengers and under 18s will no longer need to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate on arrival in England from 4 am on Friday 7 January but must continue to take their post-arrival tests.

As data shows Omicron is the dominant variant in the UK and spreading widely in the community it is now proportionate to cautiously reduce testing measures at the borders.

Also Read: Hong Kong Suspends Flights From India, US, UK, Five Other Countries Starting Jan 8

Anyone who receives a positive result on their lateral flow test must self-isolate immediately and order an NHS PCR test from gov.uk. Positive PCR tests for arrivals will be sequenced to understand if and where variants are emerging around the globe in order to protect the UK public.

“INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL UPDATE! We’re removing the temporary extra testing measures we introduced last year at the border to slow cases of Omicron coming to the UK. Now Omicron is the dominant variant & is widespread in the UK, these measures are no longer proportionate” said Grant Shapps, Secretary of State for Transport in a series of tweets.

✈️INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL UPDATE ✈️

We’re removing the temporary extra testing measures we introduced last year at the border to slow cases of Omicron coming to the UK. Now Omicron is the dominant variant & is widespread in the UK, these measures are no longer proportionate [1/6]

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— Rt Hon Grant Shapps MP (@grantshapps) January 5, 2022

Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps said:

I’ve always said that we won’t keep international travel restrictions in place any longer than they are necessary to protect public health.

That’s why we’re removing the temporary, extra testing measures we introduced for Omicron in November, making travel easier and cheaper for fully vaccinated passengers and providing a big boost for the travel industry as we enter the peak new year booking period.

We want to provide more certainty to passengers and businesses and will do a full review of our international travel measures for 2022 by the end of the month.