UK defends new covid tests that riled travel industry
The UK’s decision to force all travelers entering the country to take a pre-flight Covid-19 test, threatening to upend the peak Christmas season for airlines, reflects a “balanced approach” given the threat of the omicron variant, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab. The government announced last night that all travelers, regardless of their vaccine status, will have to take a Covid test within 48 hours of their departure for the U.K. The move comes a week after the first omicron cases were confirmed in the UK, which prompted the government to require PCR test within two days of arrival. “The blanket re-introduction of testing to enter the U.K., on top of the current regime of isolation and PCR testing on arrival is completely out of step with the rest of the world,” BA said Saturday. Raab defended the latest test decision from both travel industry complaints that it goes too far and from the opposition Labour Party’s charges that the government moved too slowly given the omicron threat. In the week since the variant was detected in the U.K., case numbers have risen to almost 250. “We will always get the Goldilocks criticism of too much or too little, and I think we’ve taken the right approach,” Raab said on the Trevor Phillips show on Sky News. “We’ve focused on the vaccines and boosters and we’ve got a third of the populations over 12 with a third vaccine injection.” The government’s latest moves, which also include banning flights from southern Africa, is putting more pressure on airlines that were counting on Christmas travel to help ease the losses accumulated during the pandemic. The risk of a second lost winter has already tanked shares, with the Bloomberg EMEA Airline Index losing 18% in November, its worst monthly performance in more than a year. Omicron struck at a time the UK was already struggling with a surge of cases caused by the delta variant. The UK reported almost 44,000 new Covid infections on Sunday, the fifth consecutive day cases topped 40,000. <br/>
https://portal.staralliance.com/cms/news/hot-topics/2021-12-06/general/uk-defends-new-covid-tests-that-riled-travel-industry
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UK defends new covid tests that riled travel industry
The UK’s decision to force all travelers entering the country to take a pre-flight Covid-19 test, threatening to upend the peak Christmas season for airlines, reflects a “balanced approach” given the threat of the omicron variant, Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab. The government announced last night that all travelers, regardless of their vaccine status, will have to take a Covid test within 48 hours of their departure for the U.K. The move comes a week after the first omicron cases were confirmed in the UK, which prompted the government to require PCR test within two days of arrival. “The blanket re-introduction of testing to enter the U.K., on top of the current regime of isolation and PCR testing on arrival is completely out of step with the rest of the world,” BA said Saturday. Raab defended the latest test decision from both travel industry complaints that it goes too far and from the opposition Labour Party’s charges that the government moved too slowly given the omicron threat. In the week since the variant was detected in the U.K., case numbers have risen to almost 250. “We will always get the Goldilocks criticism of too much or too little, and I think we’ve taken the right approach,” Raab said on the Trevor Phillips show on Sky News. “We’ve focused on the vaccines and boosters and we’ve got a third of the populations over 12 with a third vaccine injection.” The government’s latest moves, which also include banning flights from southern Africa, is putting more pressure on airlines that were counting on Christmas travel to help ease the losses accumulated during the pandemic. The risk of a second lost winter has already tanked shares, with the Bloomberg EMEA Airline Index losing 18% in November, its worst monthly performance in more than a year. Omicron struck at a time the UK was already struggling with a surge of cases caused by the delta variant. The UK reported almost 44,000 new Covid infections on Sunday, the fifth consecutive day cases topped 40,000. <br/>
