The UK government has promised to only implement new Covid-19 travel restrictions in “extreme circumstances”.
The pledge came as prime minister Boris Johnson announced an end to all legal Covid restrictions in England from Thursday (24 February), as part of the government’s strategy to “live” with the virus.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said in a series of tweets: “I understand the huge personal and economic costs of border measures. So we won’t implement emergency measures in response to new Covid variants unless in extreme circumstances.
“The 11 February relaxation of travel rules was a huge boost for all. We’re now preparing to stand down our quarantine hotels, have simplified the passenger locator form (PLF) and will go further and have a toolkit of proportionate measures we can deploy to tackle new threats.”
Shapps promised to set out the government’s “contingency approach and international travel toolkit in more detail” before the Easter holiday in April.
“It forms part of the government’s new Living with Covid plan, putting us on solid ground as we return to normality,” added Shapps.
Johnson confirmed in the House of Commons on Monday (21 February) that there would also be a review “by Easter” of whether travellers arriving in the UK would have to continue filling in the much-criticised PLF.
The prime minister added that UK-based travellers could continue to use the NHS app to prove their vaccination status when travelling overseas.