In advance of the UK Governments announcements on changes to the COVID rules in England, Heathrow announced that it plans to re-open Terminal 3, to non-red list country arrivals, from 15 July in anticipation of increased demand following the rule changes.

Interestingly, there were reports yesterday and today of significant queues at Terminal 5, which handles BA and most oneWorld arrivals in to London. (I get back in on Thursday morning and will keep you posted on the experience).

As expected the requirement for masks and social distancing are removed from ‘Freedom Day’. I suspect many people will choose to keep wearing masks on public transport. Easyjet and Ryanair have indicated that they will not be changing the mask wearing requirements on their flights.

From 19 July, Step 4 of the pandemic wind down, despite increasing numbers of infections and deaths, the vaccine has enabled the Government to press on with their planned changes.  Most people being admitted to hospital now are unvaccinated.

The Prime Minister announced

• Reducing the vaccine internal to 8 weeks
• Moving away from legal limits on meetings and all businesses to re-open
• The 1m meter rule will be abolished as will the need to wear face mark,
• Government will no longer instruct people to work from home
• No COVID certificate will be required for entry to any venue
• Test, Trace and Isolate will continue if you are told to isolate by Track and Trace
• Border controls, including the Red List will remain, but the Government will work with the travel industry to remove the need for the double-vaccinated to isolate on arrival if coming from an Amber country

More announcements will be made by the Transport Minister later in the week.