Boris Johnson has raised the prospect of holidaymakers being able to use cheaper and faster COVID tests on their return to the UK and has made it clear that he has not “given up” on allowing British people to travel abroad from the 17th of May onwards.

International travel without an acceptable excuse will not be condoned any earlier than the 17th of May under the prime minister’s roadmap for lifting restrictions. The government has not been able to confirm whether foreign holidays will be allowed beyond that date with numerous other countries across Europe suffering yet another wave of COVID infections meaning that many families have been left uncertain whether to book a summer holiday abroad. Having visited an AstraZeneca laboratory in Macclesfield on Tuesday, the prime minister has taken into acknowledgment that people are “impatient” to book their holidays as soon as they can. Addicionally, the prime minister responded to a call he received by the boss of easyJet to allow the use of cheaper lateral flow tests over PCR test as part of requirements when returning from abroad.

Futhermore, Mr. Johnson was asked whether lateral flow tests could be used for post-arrival testing for holidaymakers returning from “green” countries this summer and in response the prime minister said “I do think we want to make things as easy as we can.” 

The PM also said “I do want to see international travel start up again. We have to be realistic – a lot of the destinations we want to go to at the moment are suffering a new wave of the illness. We can’t do it immediately, but that doesn’t mean we’ve given up on the 17th of May. We’ll be saying as much as we can as soon as we can about international travel.

From Friday, the PM has already announced that everyone in England will be able to access free lateral flow tests twice a week as a means of helping to prevent breakouts to increase the chances of a potential summer with travel.

As time passes, the future of travelling abroad to other countries for British citizens will become more and more apparent.