Test-free travel is another step on the road to freedom – Telegraph.co.uk

The end of post-arrival Day 2 tests for the fully-vaccinated returning to the UK, and an easing of restrictions on the unvaccinated, is another major breakthrough both for travellers and travel companies. It will be another confidence boost and a sign that the Government has finally decided that it is committed to removing the obstacles to travel imposed during the height of the pandemic.

If you are fully vaccinated, no longer do you have to remember to order a lateral flow kit and fill the details in correctly on your Passenger Locator Form. No longer will you have to remember to do the test and go through the rigmarole of registering the result online.

Even more importantly for many of us, it is also a welcome financial reprieve. Lateral flow tests cost between 20-30 a time, so they can easily add 100 or more to the cost of a family holiday. Given the increasing pressures on travel costs, this represents a significant saving.

Some key questions and obstacles around travel rules still remain, however. While the Passenger Locator Form has been simplified, you will still have to fill one in before re-entering Britain. And, of course, no matter what Britain does, other countries will follow their own protocols. Pre-arrival testing remains for visitors to many countries.

Hopefully, the fact that Britain, which seems to be slightly ahead of the rest of Europe on the omicron wave, is setting a positive agenda for removing travel restrictions will influence other countries to follow. Switzerland, for example, removed pre-arrival tests for vaccinated visitors last week.

Then there is the question of how the rules on boosters and what constitutes full vaccination will be applied both in this country and abroad. Will we need a fourth jab, and if so how soon after the third? Probably more data is needed on the effectiveness of boosters against the omicron variant and when and whether new vaccines, designed around later variants, can be introduced.

As for those who cant, or wont, get vaccinated, the Government has made significant concessions. They must continue to take a pre-departure test in the two days before returning to the UK, and another Day 2 test on arrival, but they no longer have to self-isolate for ten days and take a Day 8 test.

While we are returning to near normal in the UK, however, in many countries the unvaccinated will continue to be affected by the rules on local health passes. These often require vaccination and a recent booster and they are commonplace, especially in Europe. In France, for example, you cant enter a bar or restaurant, or travel on a long-distance train, unless you have proof of vaccination.

And the question remains as to whether the British government will change its approach to allow proof of recovery from Covid as an alternative to vaccination.

Finally, there is no guarantee, of course, that the removal of post-arrival tests wont be reversed just as the red list and compulsory hotel quarantine was suddenly re-introduced with the emergence of omicron. But each easing of the restrictions takes us further down the road to travel freedom. There may be bumps and setbacks but we do seem finally to be headed in the right direction.

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Test-free travel is another step on the road to freedom - Telegraph.co.uk