Posted on 01/24/2022 12:15:33 PM PST by fluorescence
COVID tests for fully vaccinated travellers arriving in England are being scrapped from 4am on 11 February, Grant Shapps has confirmed.
Making a statement on the coronavirus rule change in the Commons, the transport secretary said those who have had two doses of an approved vaccination or one dose of a Janssen/J+J vaccine will no longer need to take a pre-departure or post-arrival test.
The change will be introduced in time for the half-term break.
Mr Shapps told MPs 2022 will be "the year in which restrictions on travel, on lockdowns and limits on people's lives are firmly placed in the past". Advertisement
He said: "It means that after months of pre-departure testing, post-arrival testing, self-isolation, additional expense, all that fully vaccinated people will now have to do, when they travel to the UK, is to verify their status via a passenger locator form."
Those who are not fully vaccinated will no longer be required to do a day eight test after arriving in the UK and will not have to isolate, the transport secretary also confirmed.
Conservative chairman of the Commons Transport Select Committee, Huw Merriman, said it is a "landmark day for international travel".
Announcing the changes in the Commons, Mr Shapps told MPs: "We promised we wouldn't keep these measures in place a day longer than was necessary and it's obvious to me now that border testing for vaccinated travellers has outlived its usefulness, and we're therefore scrapping all travel tests for vaccinated people.
Mr Shapps told MPs the current definition of fully vaccination for the purposes of inbound travel to the UK - two doses of an approved vaccination or one dose of a Janssen vaccine - will remain in place "for now"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.sky.com ...
And yet they cling to the mythology that the “fully vaccinated” arrival is somehow safer than the unvaxxed.
When are they going to scrap the “fully vaccinated” requirement?
Ditto.
I hope they scrap fully vaccinated pretty soon.
OK, now I might go to Tankfest in June.
Well it’s a big improvement on the current state.
They currently have a minimum of 8 days quarantine for the unvaccinated, with tests before departure and on days 2 and 8 after arrival. They are reducing that to no quarantine, a pre-departure test and a test on the second day there. So anyone who isn’t infected will be able to go there freely.
I agree that as the vaccines don’t stop covid it’s probably unnecessary, but it’s nowhere near as bad as it has been (or still is in some places, such as Australia) and there’s no limit on movement.
I’ve been joking all week that soon travelers boarding at Heathrow unmasked will be told by the captain somewhere over the Atlantic that they now need to mask up before entering US airspace.
Unfortunately I believe it will actually happen.
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