Travelers to the UK will not be required to provide proof of booster shots until 2022, the Transport Secretary told reporters at Dubai’s Expo 2020 on Tuesday.
“We are committed to not readdressing the booster situation until the New Year, so there will not be any rule changes at our end.”
”We are very keen to keep the routes open, we absolutely want to do that and we do not see any prospect of anything else happening this Christmas.”
The news comes after the UK made it feasible to add booster jabs to the NHS COVID Passport.
“Getting fully vaccinated with a booster is going to be something that will, on the whole, make your life easier in all kinds of ways including foreign travel,” Prime Minister said Monday.
A series of -isolated- declarations across the EU point out that vaccine boosters could become mandatory for travel inside the bloc over the months to come.
In fact, the EU started a debate on Tuesday about how long COVID-19 vaccines remain effective and whether proof of a booster will be necessary to retain unrestricted travel throughout the bloc.
The executive European Commission will present a proposal this week to coordinate free movement policies after Croatia, Switzerland and Austria set an “expiration date” for both the vaccines and vaccine passports.
Millions of Britons will be relieved to learn that no changes will be made this year, considering that booster doses have only been available to those aged 50 and up,
However, the minister recognizes that, as of today, adding new countries to the Red List has not been entirely ruled out.
Although the Aviation Minister told reporters the government would not be reviewing its policy until January, it’s probable that the UK government now wants to add a few countries to its list on Dec. 9.
The CDC issued a travel warning for Germany and Denmark on Monday after the two countries were added to its list of countries with a “very high risk” of infection transmission.
The red list already included Austria, Belgium, Czechia, the Netherlands, and Turkey.