(UTV | LONDON) – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced changes Wednesday to COVID-19 rules for travel to England, scrapping the need for pre-departure tests and quarantine on arrival until the traveler has tested negative.
“I can announce that in England from 4:00 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Friday we will be scrapping the pre-departure test, which discourages many from traveling for fear of being trapped overseas and incurring significant extra expense,” Johnson told lawmakers in parliament.
Britain on Wednesday reported record COVID-19 prevalence for the last week of 2021, with one in 15 people in England infected, as Johnson said cases were increasing at the fastest rate ever.
The increasing number of cases has put huge strains on public services such as hospitals, which face staff shortages and growing admissions.
The prime minister has resisted imposing stringent lockdown measures in England. Instead, he has bet that a vaccine booster drive and caution among the population will be enough to constrain the latest wave of infections, despite the arrival of the highly transmissible omicron variant.