The prime minister has urged the public to take up their booster jab, warning that showing proof of one in order to travel will become “the norm”.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday 4 January, Boris Johnson encouraged wider take-up of the vaccine in general, emphasising that it will have an effect on people’s ability to travel abroad in the near future.
“It’s already the case that to travel to some countries you need a booster to be considered fully vaccinated,” he said.
“It’s likely that within weeks this will increasingly become the norm.”
Only those with a booster jab may currently enter Austria from the UK without having to quarantine - you must be at least double-jabbed to go at all.
Meanwhile, Croatia has set an ‘expiry date’ of 365 days on most recent vaccine doses; and in France, over 65s who had their second dose over six months and five weeks ago must have a booster jab to access a “Pass Sanitaire” for entry to venues.
On 21 December, the European Commission announced that it would be implementing a rule across its member states that “vaccine passports” will expire exactly 270 days (about nine months) after the most recent vaccine dose.
Though speaking to the nation to confirm that there will be no further domestic restrictions for the time being, Mr Johnson emphasised the role of the booster rollout in being able to return to normal life.
"It’s absolutely heartbreaking that as many as 90 per cent of those in intensive care with Covid have not had their booster, and over 60 per cent of those in intensive care who have Covid have not had any vaccination at all,” he said.
"People are dying needlessly because they haven’t had their jabs, they haven’t had that booster, and there are two million booster slots available this week alone.”
Despite the high number of Omicron cases, the government announced it will be continuing with “light Plan B” restrictions, with no lockdown on the horizon.
“We can keep our schools and our businesses open and we can find a way to live with this virus,” said Mr Johnson.
“I would say we have a good chance of getting through the Omicron wave without the need for further restrictions and without the need certainly for a lockdown.”
An update to the UK’s travel rules is due later today, with sources saying the pre-departure test requirement (reintroduced in response to the Omicron variant) may be scrapped.
