Boris Johnson Friday declared that all arrivals to the UK will have to have tested negative for coronavirus from Monday as he begged Britons to ‘stay at home this weekend’.
At a Downing Street briefing, the PM warned it was ‘not the time to relax’ as he escalated controls at the country’s borders again.
Amid fears over new mutant strains, he said that from 4 am Monday all travel corridors will be suspended and anyone coming to the UK must have proof of a negative test in the previous 72 hours.
Even then people must still isolate for 10 days – or five if they have another negative result during that period.
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The new regime will be backed by tougher spot checks, and stay in place until at least Feb 15 as ministers and scientists work out how to manage the threat posed by mutations. It was revealed today that 11 Britons have had one of the variants that have sprung up in Brazil – although it is not clear how much of a threat it poses.
Travellers from South America, Portugal, some of central America, and South Africa are already barred from coming to the country.
Mr Johnson said: ‘It’s precisely because we have the hope of that vaccine and the risk of new strains coming from overseas that we must take additional steps now to stop those strains from entering the country.
As the UK recorded 55,761 new cases – down a fifth on last Friday – the PM appealed for the public not to weaken, saying they must ‘think twice’ before leaving the house.
‘This is not the time for the slightest relaxation of our national resolve and our individual efforts. So please stay at home, please protect the NHS and save lives,’ he said.
The grim message came as the Covid death toll went up by another 1,280, although that was also slightly down on the same time last week. Experts say the daily fatality toll won’t peak until next week because of the three-week lag between getting infected and becoming severely ill.
The Prime Minister is facing demands to take advantage of the space created by the tough restrictions to push ahead on vaccinations as figures showed the number of jabs being administered rocketing to 320,000 a day. Almost 3.7million doses have been given out.
