The health secretary “strongly opposed” the relaxation of travel restrictions, warning the the UK risks being forced into another lockdown, it has been reported.
On Wednesday (January 5), prime minister Boris Johnson announced that pre-departure tests for those travelling to the UK would no longer be required from January 7, and that lateral flows would be accepted for day two tests on arrival, and PCRs only required to check for variants if a positive case is identified through a rapid test.
The Times reported Sajid Javid, the health secretary, “strongly opposed the move”, telling the Covid-O committee of senior ministers that removing the requirement for PCR tests would “limit the government’s ability to detect future mutant strains”.
He argued that it increased the risk that a “more deadly and transmissible strain” of coronavirus could circulate in the UK.
A government source told the paper he was “very unhappy” about the decision but he lost the argument.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps had argued the aviation industry would suffer further damage if restrictions remained in place.
He said Heathrow and British Airways had dropped in their respective league tables.
In the official government statement about easing the restrictions, Javid had said: “As we learn more about the Omicron variant it is right that we keep our testing and border measures under review to ensure they remain proportionate.
“The steps we’re taking will make travel easier for people while protecting the UK public from the virus.
“Omicron continues to be a serious threat and it is important that travellers continue to get tested.”
Shapps said at the time: “I’ve always said that we won’t keep international travel restrictions in place any longer than they are necessary to protect public health.
“That’s why we’re removing the temporary, extra testing measures we introduced for Omicron in November, making travel easier and cheaper for fully vaccinated passengers and providing a big boost for the travel industry as we enter the peak new year booking period.
“We want to provide more certainty to passengers and businesses, and will do a full review of our international travel measures for 2022 by the end of the month.”
PCR testing had been insisted upon by the government when it first reopened international travel because the lab-administered tests allow scientists to monitor variants of concern. But the industry argued the more-expensive tests were an unwarranted barrier to travel.
Transport select committee chairman Huw Merriman called the PCR tests a ‘rip off’ when he pointed out that only 5% of all the PCR tests from arriving passengers that came back positive in the three-week period from July 1, 2021, were genome-sequenced.
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