Face coverings will become mandatory again in shops and on public transport in England from next week under a raft of measures to target the new Covid variant, Omicron, the PM has said.
PCR tests for everyone entering the UK will be introduced and all contacts of new variant cases will have to self-isolate, even if fully jabbed.
Boris Johnson said Christmas would be “considerably better” than last year.
The measures were “temporary and precautionary”, he added.
Mr Johnson announced the restrictions at a Downing Street news conference after it was confirmed that two Omicron cases had been detected in Brentwood, Essex, and Nottingham. Officials said the cases were linked and connected to travel in southern Africa.
The new variant was first reported from South Africa on Wednesday, with early evidence suggesting it has a higher re-infection risk.
Mr Johnson said: “We need to slow down the spread of this variant here in the UK, because measures at the border can only ever minimise and delay the arrival of a new variant rather than stop it all together.”
He said the new measures would be reviewed in three weeks, by which time they should have better information about the “continuing effectiveness” of vaccines.
Asked by the BBC’s Iain Watson if the prime minister could say with any confidence that people could keep their Christmas plans, he replied: “We continue to be in a strong position largely thanks to the speed of the vaccine rollout, another booster rollout, and… I’m pretty confident to absolutely confident this Christmas will be considerably better than last Christmas.”
Countries around the world are racing to introduce travel bans and restrictions on southern African countries in an effort to contain the variant’s spread.
Under the plans:
Everyone arriving in the UK will have to take PCR test and self-isolate until they receive a negative result
All contacts of suspected Omicron cases must self-isolate, regardless of whether or not they are fully jabbed
Face coverings will be made compulsory in shops and on public transport – but hospitality settings will be exempt from the changes
The health secretary is to ask advisers to consider rapidly extending boosters, including reducing the gap between the second dose of the vaccine and the booster
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