Africa-Press – Lesotho. Starting from yesterday, October 11th, Basotho travelling to the United Kingdom (UK) will enjoy free movement into the United Kingdom as Lesotho has been taken
off the COVID-19 red list. Lesotho is now on the list of the countries whose nationals will have their proof of vaccination recognised by her former protectorate.
Before these new developments, Lesotho nationals travelling to the UK would be subjected to the 10 days hotel quarantine upon arrival in that country.
The UK had previously labelled the countries on the red list as high risk to new strains of the COVID-19 variants. Taking to Twitter last week, the British High Commissioner to Lesotho Anne Macro
tweeted: “On Monday Lesotho will be removed from the UK’s Covid red list. We are working with the Ministry of Health to get recognition for Lesotho’s vaccine certificates – then those fully vaccinated in Lesotho will also no
longer need to isolate on arrival. ” “You must be able to prove that you’ve been fully vaccinated under a vaccination programme with approved proof of certification.
“The continued progress on vaccination both at home and around the world means the
government can confidently reduce the size of the red list to focus on countries which pose the highest risk, informed by UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) assessment,” the UK government had said.
The UK had warned its prospective travellers to have at least vaccinated 14 days before their visit. The UK’s Health and Social Care Secretary Sajid Javid said: “Our robust border
measures have helped protect the phenomenal progress of our vaccination programme, and it is because of this success both here and around the world that we can safely open up travel further and we can visit friends and families
abroad. “We’re now making it easier and cheaper for people to travel by allowing fully vaccinated travellers from non-red list countries to use lateral flow tests on
day 2 of arrival, as long as they provide proof of use. ” It has “approved” the following vaccines to have been administered to the travellers visiting it: Oxford/AstraZeneca, Pfizer BioNTech, Moderna and
Janssen. “After you arrive in England you must take a COVID-19 test on or before day 2. If you will be in England for less than 2 days you still need to book and pay for a
day 2 COVID-19 test. You only need to take the test if you are still in England on day 2,” the UK government had said last week. During the recent United Nations (UN) 76th session of the General Assembly for Heads
of State and Government in New York last month, Prime Minister Dr Moeketsi Majoro appealed to the Heads of State and Government to collectively combat the
COVID-19 pandemic. He noted thus: “This session of the General Assembly comes at a critical time and momentous conjuncture in human history; indeed, this is the time when circumstances compel us to reiterate our plea to
the international community to adopt an expanded and comprehensive response to the COVID 19 pandemic. Such a response would complement individual countries on concerted efforts to halt the continuing spread of the pandemic.”
