Omicron: UK to remove Nigeria, 10 others from red list

The UK has said Nigeria and 10 other countries will be taken off its travel red list from 4 a.m. on Wednesday.

The move follows anger from Nigeria and other African countries, with the United Nations calling the ban on non-British residents from entering England a “travel apartheid”.

On December 4, the British government placed Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe on its ban on travel in the wake of the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
He said the red list was reintroduced as a precaution after the emergence of the Omicron variant.

The government had said the ban would be reviewed on December 20, but announcing the new development on Tuesday, UK Health Secretary Sajid Javid said the Omicron had spread so widely that the rules are now less effective.

Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely around the world, the travel redlist is now less effective in slowing down Omicron’s foray from overseas. », He declared in parliament.

“While we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel, we will remove the 11 countries from the travel red list as of 4 am tomorrow morning,” he added.

The BBC reports that currently all arrivals to the UK from Red List countries must pay and self-isolate in a pre-booked and government approved hotel for 10 days.
They must also pass Covid tests within 48 hours of leaving for the UK and PCR tests within two days of arrival.

Some newcomers have already paid thousands of pounds to stay in government-approved quarantine hotels, and there have been complaints of chaotic organization and inedible food during their stays.

Javid said he had asked for urgent advice on whether people currently in managed quarantine could leave sooner.

He also said he was “very convinced” by the calls to reimburse people and hoped to make an announcement soon.

The travel industry had also warned the restrictions were hurting business.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the testing measures would be reviewed in the first week of January.

“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,” he said on Twitter.