Covid-19: No travel red list in the UK from November 15

The government in the United Kingdom has removed the names of 11 countries from the travel red list. These countries are Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

They were included in the travel red list after Botswana and South Africa first reported the emergence of Omicron which is a highly infectious variant of Sars_Cov_2.

Initially, this variant was only located in these two African countries and other countries believe that a travel ban will help contain the virus in Africa only and check its transmission in other countries.

However, within a month’s time, it spread to over 60 other countries and the UK has become one of the worst affected as it has spread in the community. The UK has also reported its first death due to Omicron on December 14.

Under the red list, people coming from these countries were supposed to self-isolate in a pre-booked, government-approved hotel for at least 10 days and bear the expenses.

Now, with the removal from the list, these travellers will not have to go through the quarantine norms and have to follow guidelines that travellers from non-red list countries do.

Health Secretary Sajid Javid has announced that the variant has already spread in the UK society.

Javid informed the parliament, "Now that there is community transmission of Omicron in the UK and Omicron has spread so widely across the world, the travel red list is now less effective in slowing the incursion of Omicron from abroad.”

He added, “Whilst we will maintain our temporary testing measures for international travel we will be removing all 11 countries from the travel red list.”