Government Announces An End To All UK Covid Travel Restrictions

It has been announced that all remaining Covid travel measures in the UK will be scrapped this week.

As it stands currently, everyone travelling to the UK must complete a passenger locator form before they arrive and travellers who are not fully jabbed have to take a Covid test before departure, fill in the form, and book and pay for a PCR test after arriving.

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The UK transport secretary Grant Shapps confirmed in a tweet that these rules will be lifted at 04:00 am on Friday.

BBC reports: His announcement means that passengers who are not fully vaccinated will no longer have to take Covid tests before and after travelling to the UK. The passenger locator form will no longer be necessary either.

People planning an overseas trip will still need to be aware of other countries’ entry rules.

Mr Shapps tweeted: “These changes are possible due to our vaccine rollout and mean greater freedom in time for Easter.”

When any new Covid strains appear in the future, the government said its default approach would be to use “the least-stringent measures” for restricting travel.

Its “Living with Covid” plan said new measures at the border would only be considered in “extreme circumstances”.

It said the UKHSA would closely monitor the prevalence and spread of Covid variants.

Scotland and Wales have agreed to follow England in scrapping the remaining coronavirus border measures.

But Welsh Health Minister Eluned Morgan said she was doing so “reluctantly” – and was “extremely disappointed” that testing requirements and the passenger location form were being ditched.

The Scottish government said consistency across the four nations was agreed because of the “negative impact of non-alignment on the tourism industry”.