Tony Blair: reduce Covid restrictions for fully vaccinated people

Fully vaccinated travellers arriving in the UK from countries on the government's Covid-19 green list should not have to take pre and post-arrival virus tests, a new report by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change said.

It also proposes removing the automatic 10-day quarantine requirement for those who are inoculated and coming from amber list countries.

Under current rules for England, travellers arriving from the small number of countries on the green list must take a Covid test before and after entry. They also have to quarantine if it later arises that they travelled with someone who tested positive for the virus.

Arrivals from amber list countries must take a Covid test beforehand, another two after, and quarantine for 10 days.

In its report, the Tony Blair Institute suggests that "anyone who is fully vaccinated should be free to travel to and from any country currently designated as green without any quarantine period or testing required”.

Commenting on the report, former UK prime minister Tony Blair said it made sense to now make the distinction between the vaccinated and unvaccinated.

“The management of the Covid-19 pandemic is all about that management of risk. We place or remove restrictions here at home on that basis. We assess countries as green, amber or red on that basis," he said.

“We vaccinate on the same basis. We know that vaccination radically reduces the risk of transmission and the risk of serious illness. It doesn't eliminate the risk. But the reduction is substantial and game-changing. Hence the country’s embrace of vaccination and pride in doing it quickly.

“It is time to distinguish for the purposes of freedom from restriction between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, both for citizens here for domestic purposes; but also for our citizens and those from other countries in respect of travel on the basis that being vaccinated substantially reduces risk. It therefore makes no sense at all to treat those who have had vaccination the same as those who haven't.”

The report suggests utilising the PCR testing capacity of the National Health Service for arrivals amber countries, rather than more expensive private services.

The report proposes that, once vaccines are available for all age groups, places such as shops, restaurants, gyms and cultural venues should be allowed to loosen restrictions for those fully vaccinated or in possession of a recent negative lateral flow test.

“If they take up this option, they should be allowed to operate with no restrictions on capacity, no observed social distancing and without requirements to wear a face covering,” the report said.

Mr Blair conceded that the policies suggested by his institute would discriminate between those who were inoculated and those who were not.

“But the whole of risk management is based on discriminating between different types and levels of risk. Nothing matters more to risk than vaccination, which is precisely why we're doing it.

“Yes by allowing greater freedom and fewer restrictions to the vaccinated we're providing a powerful incentive to take up vaccination, but this is a perfectly valid public policy objective. Other than for medical reasons, people should be vaccinated,” he said.