From February 11, most travellers to the UK will no longer have to take coronavirus tests after arriving in the country.
Fully-vaccinated people – and this still includes those with only two jabs – will need to verify their status via a simplified passenger locator form, the transport minister said.
Grant Shapps told the House of Commons: “Our international travel regime will also now be liberalised as part of our efforts to ensure that 2022 is the year that restrictions on travel, lockdowns and limits on people’s lives are fully placed in the past. We promised we wouldn’t keep these measures in place a day longer than was necessary. It’s obvious to me now that border testing for vaccinated travellers has now outlived its usefulness. We’re therefore scrapping all travel tests for vaccinated people, not only making travel much easier but also saving about £100 per family on visits abroad, providing certainty to passengers, carriers and the tourist sector for the spring and summer seasons.”
Those who are not fully-vaccinated will not need to quarantine but must take a test before travel and a PCR test “on arrival.”
Under-18s will be automatically treated as fully-vaccinated.
According to some reports, the UK move has been taken in order to facilitate school holidays in February.
