It has been announced that international travellers will need a negative Covid test to enter the UK. Due to rising concerns over the new South-African virus variant, Britain finally implements tougher border controls.
The new rule will be enforced from next week. A negative test will be needed less than 72 hours prior to embarking on any mode of travel and will apply to both UK nationals and foreign citizens.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps describes the “precautions taken” due to the “new strains of the virus developing internationally”, “pre-departure tests will provide a further line of defence”.
Additionally, even with a negative test, unless travellers are not on the UK low-risk travel corridor list, a quarantine of 10 days will be compulsory.
Previously deemed as an ineffective measure by ministers, it comes as another massive U-turn made by the government to equal a policy enforced by many other nations months earlier.
Undoubtedly this causes much disruption for travellers making their way to the UK. Many find themselves scrambling to arrange test dates that provide results within the mandatory 72-hour window.
This considerable backtracking of the government continues to cast doubt on the competency of UK leaders, raises questions surrounding the coherence of our covid effort.
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