England to introduce mandatory Covid tests for ALL arrivals, say reports

Friday, 05 Jan, 2021 0

The UK Government is expected to announce mandatory Covid tests for everyone entering England later this week in a further blow to the travel industry.

New rules will require anyone travelling to England to have a negative Covid test taken no more than 72 hours before their journey, according to a report in the Financial Times.

The expected announcement by the Government follows Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to introduce a new nationwide lockdown from midnight tonight.

It also follows criticism of the Government for failing to screen arrivals into the UK since the start of the pandemic.

Instead, England introduced a mandatory 14-day quarantine for arrivals from higher risk countries, but under a new Test-and-Release scheme, announced only last month, visitors are allowed to cut their quarantine period if they take a Covid test after five days and receive a negative result.

Visitors from lower risk countries, which are on the Government’s ‘travel corridor’ list, don’t need to quarantine at all at the moment.

Former Tory health secretary Jeremy Hunt yesterday called on the PM to close Britain’s borders altogether to prevent new strains of the virus from being imported.

Linsey McNeill

Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk

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