Fully vaccinated arrivals from red-list countries could be spared hotel quarantine and made to isolate at home under plans being considered by ministers.
Boris Johnson has insisted that the government will be “looking at the red list and the way we do it” amid growing calls for the rules to be eased.
Scientists and advisers have questioned the need for hotel quarantine, which was reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant, because the strain is now spreading within Britain.
Omicron is expected to become the country’s dominant variant within weeks. As a result there will be “less need to have any kind of travel restrictions at all,” Sajid Javid, the health secretary, said.
At present anyone arriving from a red-list country must submit to hotel quarantine for 11 nights at a cost of £2,285 per person. Eleven African countries are on the list: Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Advertisement
• What are the latest rules for travel?
• Sathnam Sanghera: If we want to save the world then perhaps we shouldn’t travel
Only British, Irish or passengers with the right to reside are able to enter the UK if they have been in any of the red-list countries in the previous ten days.
Ministers said the red list had been reintroduced temporarily to limit the number of Omicron cases in Britain and would be reviewed on December 20.
Britons have complained that they are stranded in red-list countries because of a lack of hotel rooms secured for managed quarantine by the government. The Times understands that a number of hotel brands who were originally involved in the scheme have refused to sign new contracts because it would involve cancelling many existing bookings.
This morning John Holland-Kaye, chief executive of Heathrow, said: “By allowing Brits to isolate at home, ministers can make sure they are reunited with their loved ones this Christmas. It would send a strong signal that restrictions on travel will be removed as soon as safely possible to give passengers the confidence to book for 2022, opening up thousands of new jobs for local people at Heathrow. Let’s reunite families for Christmas.”
Advertisement
Passenger demand at Heathrow, Britain’s busiest airport, was at 40 per cent of pre-pandemic levels last month, despite the United States reopening its borders to European travellers on November 8.
The airport is urging ministers to reduce restrictions as soon as it is safe to do so and has warned of a “high level of cancellations by business travellers concerned about being trapped overseas because of pre-departure testing”.
On Wednesday Boris Johnson relaxed rules for contacts of Omicron cases, saying people can take daily tests to avoid ten days of isolation.
The airport now predicts that traffic next year will recover to 55 per cent of pre-pandemic levels. Iata, the airlines’ international trade body, expects global passenger numbers next year to be about 60 per cent of 2019 levels.
