7th January 2022 Covid updates
Happy New Year to all.
Here are some of the latest changes for the UK.
Travel to the UK
Temporary additional measures announced in November to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant have now been removed.
From 4am on Friday 7 January, adults who qualify as fully vaccinated and ALL under 18s:
- do not need to take a pre-departure test
- do not need to self-isolate while waiting for their post-arrival test results
From 4am on Sunday 9 January, fully vaccinated adults and under 18s can take a less expensive lateral flow test rather than a PCR test. If this test is positive, they will need to self-isolate and take a PCR test to confirm the result.
read latest testing rules on GOV.UK
check who qualifies as fully-vaccinated
Confirmatory PCR tests suspended (in England & Scotland)
The UK Health Security Agency has announced that from Tuesday 11 January, it is suspending the requirement for people who test positive using a lateral flow test to then take a confirmatory PCR test.
Anyone who receives a positive lateral flow test result should still report their result on GOV.UK and must self-isolate.
Other recent changes
- People who test positive in England, Scotland and Wales will be allowed to exit self-isolation after seven days if they have no fever and they record two negative lateral flow tests on days six and seven.