U.K. Announces New Measures to Confront Spread of Omicron

(Bloomberg) -- U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced new measures to combat the spread of the omicron coronavirus variant, which he said can spread rapidly and affect those who are double vaccinated. 

The announcement of travel restrictions and the return of mask requirements in retail stores and on public transport came hours after his government confirmed two cases of the new Covid-19 strain in the U.K., detected in people returning from southern Africa.

The U.K. will now require anyone entering the country to take a PCR test within two days of arrival and self isolate until they receive confirmation of a negative result, Johnson said at a press conference. Anyone who comes into close contact with someone who tests positive for the variant will have to self isolate for 10 days, regardless of vaccine status, he said. Face masks will be required to enter businesses and on public transportation, though the mandate won’t apply to pubs and other hospitality venues. 

Omicron “might -- at least in part -- reduce the protection of our vaccines over time,” Johnson said. “So, we need to take targeted and proportionate measures now as a precaution while we find out more.”

Johnson and other health officials leaned on the country’s strong vaccination program -- including an expansion of booster shots -- as the main defense against the new variants. The U.K. has had one of the world’s most successful vaccine campaigns, with more than 80% of people over the age of 12 having received both shots. Some 17 million people have received a booster, almost 30% of those over 12.

The prime minister stressed that the government had no intention of a return to lockdowns and said he was “absolutely confident this Christmas will be better than the last one.” Johnson did not go as far as implementing the government’s Plan B, which includes encouraging people to work from home and insisted the new measures were temporary and would be reviewed in three weeks.

The new variant has become the dominant strain in South Africa in just two weeks and news of the the strain roiled financial markets on Friday, with the Stoxx 600 falling 3.7%, its biggest drop since June 2020. The U.S. and many European countries announced travel bans on flights from Southern Africa on Friday, but it doesn’t appear they moved quickly enough to stop the spread. Apart from confirmed cases in the U.K., suspected cases were identified in Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Belgium in the past day. 

The U.K. on Saturday also added four more southern African countries -- Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Angola -- to its travel “red list” effective 4 a.m. local time on Sunday, he said. People returning from red-list countries face a mandatory 10-day quarantine at a managed hotel at their own expense.

Ten African countries are now on the U.K.’s red list. The HSA is following up on recent arrivals from the countries, it said in a release. 

Flights from South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana, Eswatini and Zimbabwe were suspended from midday on Friday.   

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