Namibians, among other nationalities, will no longer be required to self-isolate or conduct a pre-departure COVID-19 test as a requirement for vaccinated travellers entering the United Kingdom (UK).
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced on Wednesday the scrapping of the regulation with effect from Friday this week.
“From 4am, 7 Jan, eligible fully vaccinated people traveling to England won’t have to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate on arrival,” he said.
“The pre-departure hurdle discourages many from traveling for fear of being trapped overseas and incurring significant extra expense,” Johnson said.
A lateral-flow test must, however, still be taken within two days of entering the UK, but the requirement for a more-costly PCR assessment will be eliminated with effect from Sunday 9 January, 2022.
UK testing requirements were introduced in response to the omicron COVID-19 variant which had been labelled by the World Health Organization as a ‘variant of concern’ which poses a “very high” global risk.
The development also saw the UK adding 11 African countries, including Namibia to its “red list”.
The easing of border rules introduced to slow the spread of Omicron will bring some relief to carriers after air travel was negatively affected.
While governments have introduced a slew of restrictions, evidence is growing that the now-dominant variant produces milder symptoms than earlier coronavirus waves.
The UK will now revert to travel rules that were in place in October.
