Downing Street calls for holidaymakers to get booster jabs despite relaxation of rules

Downing Street has called on people to get the booster jab if they wanted to travel abroad despite the relaxation of Covid rules.

England's Plan B measures are set to be dropped from Thursday following an announcement made in the House of Commons by Boris Johnson.

Boris Johnson said England will now be reverting to "Plan A" due to the booster jab and how people have followed restrictions.

Despite this, people have been urged to get the booster jab if they are planning to travel abroad.

“Our expectation is that the vast majority of countries in the world will expect people to be boosted for entry into their country and so it’s vitally important that everyone understands that if you do want to travel this summer, you almost certainly will need to have been boosted,” the Prime Minister’s official spokesman said.

Boris Johnson told MPs in the House of Commons more than 90% of over-60s across the UK have now had booster vaccines to protect them, and scientists believed the Omicron wave has peaked.

People will no longer be told to work from home and, from Thursday next week when Plan B measures lapse, mandatory Covid passes will end, Mr Johnson said.

The legal requirement for people with coronavirus to self-isolate will also be allowed to lapse when the regulations expire on March 24, and that date could be brought forward.

When it comes to face masks, the Government will no longer make people wear them anywhere from next Thursday and they will be scrapped in classrooms from this Thursday, with school communal areas to follow.

Mr Johnson signalled his intention to start treating Covid-19 more like flu, saying: “There will soon come a time when we can remove the legal requirement to self-isolate altogether, just as we don’t place legal obligations on people to isolate if they have flu.

“As Covid becomes endemic, we will need to replace legal requirements with advice and guidance, urging people with the virus to be careful and considerate of others.”

The bonfire of Covid regulations could help appease Mr Johnson’s Tory critics at a time when the Prime Minister has been under pressure over Downing Street parties.