England to require travellers to show negative COVID tests

 

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Britain's government will require people entering England to present a negative COVID-19 test result on arrival starting next week to protect against new strains of the coronavirus from other countries, the government said on Friday.

 

Passengers arriving by boat, plane or train will have to take a test up to 72 hours before departing for England, the transport ministry said, mirroring measures taken by many other countries around the world.

 

"We already have significant measures in place to prevent imported cases of COVID-19, but with new strains of the virus developing internationally we must take further precautions," Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said in a statement.

 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered a new lockdown for England this week after a surge in cases linked to a new variant of the coronavirus believed to have originated in the country.

 

On Thursday, Britain said it would extend a ban on travellers entering England from South Africa to other southern African countries to prevent the spread of a variant identified in South Africa.

 

Exemptions to the new testing requirement rule would be offered to hauliers, children under 11, crews and people travelling from countries where tests are not available, the government said.

 

Passengers will be subject to a fine of 500 pounds ($678.30) if they fail to comply with the new regulations.

 

Britain's airline industry said it recognised the need to act to introduce pre-departure testing but only as a short-term, emergency measure.

"Once the roll-out of the vaccine accelerates, the focus must be on returning travel to normal as quickly as possible in order to support the UK’s economic recovery," Tim Alderslade, chief executive of Airlines UK, an industry group, said. 

 

Britain requires passengers from many countries to self-isolate for 10 days, or five if they pay for a private test and test negative. Those requirements will remain in place after the new pre-departure testing rule comes into effect.

 

Britain's government was working with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to roll out similar measures.

 

The new rule would not apply to the Common Travel Area which includes England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland as well as the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

 

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-01-08

 

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Finally a little bit of reciprocity, I hope they continue this measure on a country by country basis going forward.

 

By 2022 I have a feeling COVID will be 'someone elses' problem and all the UK will be doing is making the vaccines.

Look like it's catching around the world 

Auss has just come up with the same story

 

The one thing I am thinking of do they require it to be done at a specific location 

IE: in the same episode as to medicals & bios for visas 

Or could any doc do this

When they get around to it they will fill in some of the blanks, like what tests they expect, from GOV.UK today;

 

"Permitted travellers will need to take their test up to 72 hours before departure, and this will apply irrespective of whether a country is on the travel corridor list. The government will set out the standards that these tests will need to meet and what proof passengers will need to present."

6 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Finally a little bit of reciprocity, I hope they continue this measure on a country by country basis going forward.

 

By 2022 I have a feeling COVID will be 'someone elses' problem and all the UK will be doing is making the vaccines.

& talking about vaccines I wonder if the countries will acknowledge all / any of the types out there

I (knowing Auss ) may only acknowledge certain brands of it, so what other countries produce may not be fit for Auss (except a few )

15 hours ago, Upnotover said:

When they get around to it they will fill in some of the blanks, like what tests they expect, from GOV.UK today;

 

"Permitted travellers will need to take their test up to 72 hours before departure, and this will apply irrespective of whether a country is on the travel corridor list. The government will set out the standards that these tests will need to meet and what proof passengers will need to present."

 

The full statement from Grant Shapps, as @Upnotoversays, no doubt the full requirements will be published in due course, probably when arriving passengers are in the air.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mandatory-covid-19-testing-introduced-to-bolster-border-measures

Where in Thailand can a test be taken , do they test weekends and how much ?    ( If no w/e testing Mon or Tuesday flights would not be possible )

Secondly 72 hours is a bit tight cos the flight can be at best 14 hours + your 3 hour check in and travel time to the airport , so really 1 day taken off the 72 hours which to be compliant you really need the test the day before your flight .

pity this was not done a year earlier, all over the world... 

The UK Government have confirmed that from 4am on 15 January, they will be introducing pre-departure testing requirements for all inbound passengers to England. Passengers arriving by ship, plane or train will have to take a test up to 3 days before departure and provide evidence of a negative result before they travel.

 

This is the statement from the Minister confirming the start date and conditions.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/international-travel-update-11-january-2021

Update is here.

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43 minutes ago, ubonjoe said:

Update is here.

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Any idea where in Thailand one can get a covid 19 test and do they test 7 days a week ?

There are a few hospitals in Bangkok that can do the test and provide the necessary certificate. Google is your friend.

Travelling to the UK tomorrow. I've got the negative Coivd test from Kasemrad Sriburin but I've just noticed it isn't technically 100% compliant with the requirements. Gulp !!

 

- The certificate does not show my age or date of birth, which is a requirement, but it is on the accompanying receipt and invoice. The certificate does state my passport number however, and that definitively identifies me as the one who took the test, which is I assume why they wanted the date of birth so it should be OK. Depends how pedantic the check-in staff are. The passport number is better than the DOB for ID purposes

- the test has to be in English (or one or two other permitted languages) and translations are not accepted. The test is in two sheets. The first one is a medical report in English but the doctor wrote "not detected" in Thai language!  There is a second sheet though which is the test itself, which says "not detected".

 

I did not need these complications !  Fingers crossed common sense will prevail at both ends. As long as I get checked in I'll happily have discussions with the staff at the UK end.

20 minutes ago, Tuvoc said:

Travelling to the UK tomorrow. I've got the negative Coivd test from Kasemrad Sriburin but I've just noticed it isn't technically 100% compliant with the requirements. Gulp !!

And the cost?

1 minute ago, stubuzz said:

And the cost?

 

3,300 baht

No issues checking in, helps of course that the check in staff are Thai obviously.  Getting a bit paranoid about all of this perhaps, but the stakes are high and all it takes is one little thing to derail everything.  But a lesson here for sure, when you pick up the certificate and before you leave the building, check that it exactly meets the requirements. 

I'm back in the UK now. Heathrow was a joke. Massive queues, wall-to-wall people with no social distancing. After being in the queue for 2 hours with probably another hour to go, and the queue growing ever longer, the border control officer simply asked people if they had booked their Day 2 and 8 tests, and if they said yes she sent them (incl me) straight to the e-passport gates and no documents were looked at or checked whatsoever. Crazy, they put these rules in place and don't have the capability to enforce them.  The airline check-in desks are doing their job for them thankfully - although, if people had NOT booked the Day 2 and 8 tests, how would they haver got this far ?

 

So I don't know what the officers would have thought of the covid certificate as they didn't even look at it.

 

Anyway, self-isolation for me now. In the end I also paid for the additional the day 5 test and release package so that I didn't have to go the full 10 days. All the test kits had been delivered waiting for me.