UK ministers have signed off a decision today to remove Nigeria and other 10 countries on England’s ‘red list’ of travel restrictions from 4am Wednesday 15th 2021, that is a sign that the government accepts the Omicron coronavirus variant can no longer be contained, Njenje Media News reports.
The minister told MPs: “So I can announce today that whilst we’ll maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel, we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list effective from 4am tomorrow.”
“The countries on the red list, which requires a mandatory ten day hotel quarantine, are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe”.
“The decision is welcomed by the travel and hospitality industries, who have argued that the red list system has severely restricted travel”.
“Those with knowledge of the discussions said that ministers had concluded it was “pointless” maintaining the red list that will restrict travel over the Christmas period while the new variant was spreading so rapidly. The decision was backed up by public health advice, officials said”.
“Sajid Javid, health secretary, has previously hinted that the red list no longer served a purpose. He told the House of Commons last week “if, as I think is likely, we see many more infections and this variant becomes the dominant variant, there will be less need to have any kind of travel restrictions at all.”
“Although all countries will is now removed from the red list, government insiders said that the system will be kept on standby and could be activated again in the future if required”.
