By The United Kingdom has said that all 11 African countries including Nigeria will be removed from its travel red list from 4am on Wednesday.
Recall that the British authorities, following emergence of the Omicron variant, had placed some countries on the red list, namely: Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
BBC reports that the government has rescinded the decision, quoting the Health Secretary Sajid Javid as saying the Omicron variant had spread so widely the rules no longer had much purpose.
“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,” he told the parliament.
“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.”
The report added that all UK arrivals from red list countries must pay for and self-isolate in a pre-booked, government-approved hotel for 10 days.
They must also take Covid tests within 48 hours of setting off for the UK and PCR tests within two days of their arrival.
Some arrivals have already paid thousands of pounds to stay in government-approved quarantine hotels, and there have been complaints of chaotic organisation and inedible food during their stays.
Javid said he had asked for urgent advice on whether those currently in managed quarantine would be able to leave early.
He also said he was “very persuaded” by calls to reimburse people and hoped to make an announcement soon.
The move follows anger from African countries, with the UN describing the ban on non-UK residents entering England as “travel apartheid”.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps also disclosed that the testing measures would be reviewed in the first week of January.
He wrote on Twitter, “As always, we keep all our travel measures under review and we may impose new restrictions should there be a need to do so to protect public health.”
