Travel rules tightened in bid to curb spread of omicron

All international travellers to the UK will have to take a Covid test before their departure in a bid to curb the spread of the omicron variant, the government has announced.

- ANDREW WOODCOCK & SIMON CALDER

The move comes amid growing concern about the newly detected strain of coronavirus, which is believed to be more contagious than previous variants such as delta.

From 4am on Tuesday, any traveller aged 12 or over, regardless of their vaccination status, will have to show proof of a negative PCR or lateral flow test taken up to 48 hours before departure time to the UK. From tomorrow, Nigeria will be added to the red list of high-risk countries from which travellers must undergo hotel quarantine for 10 days after entering Britain.

Health secretary Sajid Javid said the government's strategy since the discovery of omicron had been to “buy time” to assess and to “put in place protective measures”, adding: “We've always said that we would act swiftly should new data require it.” He said that further action to slow the incursion of the variant was being taken "in light of the most recent data”.

It is understood that the move to pre-departure testing was prompted in part by evidence that the time delay between infection with the omicron variant and becoming infectious to other people is shorter than with other strains.