UK abolishes COVID-19 testing for all vaccinated travelers

The UK Government has today announced plans to remove all Covid-19 testing requirements for fully vaccinated passengers entering England.

From 0400 on February 11th, passengers entering England who are fully vaccinated will no longer be required to book a Day-2 arrivals test.

A message from British Airways chairman and CEO, Sean Doyle to its trade partners said, “ Today’s announcement provides a welcome boost to the travel industry and UK economy”.

He disclosed that finally, fully-vaccinated customers can start to book with confidence whether they are doing business, going on holiday, or reuniting with friends and family without the additional costly and time-consuming burden of testing. It sends a clear message to the rest of the world that global Britain is back in business.

Passengers who are not fully vaccinated will continue to be required to take a pre-departure test as well as a Day-2 PCR test, however, the requirement for a Day-8 PCR test is also being removed from February 11th.

All passengers will still be required to complete a Passenger Locator Form (PLF) prior to their arrival in England.

For more than two months, the UK government had been relaxing its rules on COVID-19, thereby making air travel to be less cumbersome for many Nigerians and others.

The country and many other European countries are focusing more on vaccination; a situation that is fast replacing quarantine and PCR tests that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) considers to be adding more travel burden on teeming passengers and one that has cut down air travel.

Making the most extensive changes to its pandemic travel restrictions for several months, the government had late last year removed some countries and territories from its red list — South Africa, Botswana, Nigeria, Namibia, Botswana among others.

Wole Shadare