UK:Pre-departure testing removed for vaccinated travellers

UK has decided to do away Pre-departure tests for vaccinated travelers entering Britain from Friday, while people who test positive using rapid home kits will no longer need to take so-called PCR tests to confirm the result from Jan. 11. Eligible fully vaccinated travellers and under 18s will no longer have to take a pre-departure test or self-isolate on arrival in England - returning to the travel rules that were in place before Omicron. Prime minister Boris Johnson warned of serious challenges ahead in tackling the omicron Covid-19 variant, as he eased testing rules to free up capacity to cope with a virus caseload that's surging across the U.K. "Thanks to the sheer size of the omicron wave, we still need to take steps to ensure our testing capacity reaches those who need it most," Johnson told the House of Commons on Wednesday. The U.K. is "experiencing the fastest growth in Covid cases that we have ever known," he said, while hospital admissions are "rising rapidly, doubling around every nine days." This came after National Health Service warned that hospitals are coming under severe strain.

Meanwhile, an additional 194,747 new cases were reported across the U.K. on Wednesday -- another daily record if Tuesday's data, which included a backlog of cases from over the New Year holiday, is excluded. More than 20 hospital trusts are currently reporting "critical incidents," his office said, while Johnson warned that "potentially of greatest concern" is the rapid rise in cases among older and more vulnerable people, "with the obvious risk that this will continue to increase the pressures on our NHS." "Whatever the situation may be -- and I'm confident it will be much better -- we will continue with the fundamental tools that we have; that is vaccination, therapeutics and testing," Johnson said. As data shows Omicron is the dominant variant in the UK and spreading widely in the community it is now proportionate to cautiously reduce testing measures at the borders.