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LONDON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Britain will require all inbound
travellers to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test, and arrivals
from Nigeria will have to quarantine in hotels to slow the
spread of the Omicron variant, health minister Sajid Javid said
on Saturday.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has said that travel
restrictions are necessary to slow the spread of Omicron while
scientists race to understand more about the coronavirus
variant, its transmissibility and implications for vaccine
effectiveness.
"We've kept the data under review over the last week or so
since we learned about Omicron, and we're seeing increasing
number of cases linked to travel," Javid said in a broadcast
clip.
"We've always said we will act swiftly if we need to, if the
changing data requires that, and that's why we decided to bring
in this change on pre-departure tests."
The pre-departure testing requirement will mean all inbound
travellers must take a test a maximum of 48 hours before
departure time, and will come in from 0400 GMT on Tuesday.
Nigeria will be added to Britain's travel "red list" at 0400
GMT on Monday.
Javid said that the number of cases of Omicron in Britain
had risen to around 160, and that Nigeria was second only to
South Africa in terms of Omicron cases linked to travel.
South Africa and nine other Southern African countries were
added to the red list last weekend, meaning that entry is only
allowed to UK citizens or residents who then must quarantine in
a hotel.
(Reporting by Alistair Smout; Editing by Alex Richardson and
Christina Fincher)
