UK has added ten southern African countries to their red list and will require all arrivals to do a day 2 PCR test and self-isolate until they have got a negative result.
The return of the red list comes after the B.1.1.529 COVID-19 variant, also known as ‘Omicron’, was detected in South Africa and Botswana.
Travellers arriving from South Africa will now have to quarantine on arrival in the UK, along with arrivals from nine other southern African nations.
From 04:00 on Sunday 28 November arrivals from red list countries will have to go straight into quarantine in government-mandated hotels. This costs around €3,000 per person, for a 10-day stay.
The countries added to the red list are:
- South Africa
- Namibia
- Zimbabwe
- Botswana
- Lesotho
- Eswatini
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Zambia
- Angola
At a press conference on Saturday evening, UK Prime Minster Boris Johnson said, “This variant is spreading around the world, with two cases so far identified here in the UK.
He went on to say, “We are not going to stop people travelling, I want to stress that, we’re not going to stop people travelling, but we will require anyone who enters the UK to take a PCR test by the end of the second day after their arrival, and to self-isolate until they have a negative result.
It’s believed that officials will now be hoping to track down hundreds of people who have arrived in the UK from South Africa over the past week, in an attempt to avoid introducing the new strain.
More than 500 passengers arrive in the UK from South Africa every day.
Non-UK and Irish residents are not allowed to enter UK if they have been in any of the red list countries in the past 10 days.
Any British or Irish resident entering UK after 04:00 on Sunday must quarantine in a government-mandated hotel, with those returning between Friday and Sunday asked to isolate at home.
Anyone who has returned in the last 10 days from red list countries is going to be asked to take a PCR test by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA).
