From Wednesday, the United Kingdom (UK) will remove all 11 countries from the Covid-19 travel warning list, according to British Health Secretary Sajid Javid.
Nigeria was placed in the UK’s Covid-19 travel red list, along with Angola, Botswana, Eswantini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, in the Omicron type.
From 4 a.m. on Wednesday, the countries will be removed, and passengers from those countries will no longer be required to stay in a government-approved quarantine hotel for two weeks at a cost of £2,285.
“Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad.
“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”, Javi said.
For the time being, he continued, the temporary testing measures for everyone entering in the UK from abroad will be maintained.
Javid stated that he had sought “urgent guidance” on whether persons in hotel quarantine should be released.
He stated that they had been compelled to complete their quarantine term in the past, but that he did not want to see that happen this time.
“I would love to stand here right now and just say that is the case,” Mr Javid said when asked if people currently in hotel quarantine would be reimbursed. “But there are some issues that need to be resolved, and they are urgently being looked at.”
“I hope we can say something more on this as a government, potentially even as early as today.”
All inbound visitors to the United Kingdom must take a PCR or a fast lateral flow test at least 48 hours before departure.
These testing measures will be evaluated in the first week of January, according to Transportation Secretary Grant Shapps.
