December 6, 2021 10.19 am This story is over 42 months old

COVID cases continue to rise as more travel restrictions hit country amid Omicron outbreak

Pre-departure tests required for travel from Nigeria
| Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite

More COVID-19 travel restrictions have been brought in as coronavirus cases in Greater Lincolnshire level off to a 5% week-on-week rise over the weekend.

The government has confirmed that from today (Monday, December 6), anyone above the age of 12 wishing to travel to the UK will need to show a negative pre-departure test within 48 hours of departure.

It comes as Nigeria is added to the travel red list due to 21 cases of the new Omicron variant being linked to the country.

The latest COVID stats for Greater Lincolnshire over the weekend are:

  • 1,587 new cases of coronavirus with 1,091 in Lincolnshire, 302 in North East Lincolnshire and 194 in North Lincolnshire.
  • Two further deaths were recorded in the government figures for Lincolnshire
  • Hospital deaths are not updated over the weekend.

The figures leave the weekly total at 5,088 cases – up 5.64% from last week’s 4,816.

There were 21 deaths compared to 18 last week and 20 hospital deaths were recorded, up from 13.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has told reporters while visiting Merseyside this morning that the UK’s travel restrictions are “appropriate” and said the UK acted quickly in response to Omicron.

“We were the first country in the world to take decisive measures to tackle Omicron,” he said.

Greater Lincolnshire’s latest vaccinations up to December 5. | Data: gov.uk

“We put about 10 countries automatically, immediately, on to the red list and we said that anybody coming from any country in the world would have to quarantine for a couple of days.

“We’re now going further and toughening those measures up as we see the spread of Omicron around the world.

“We’re still waiting to see exactly how dangerous it is, what sort of effect it has in terms of deaths and hospitalisations.”

Under the latest measures airlines will be required to check for pre-departure tests alongside completed Passenger Locator Forms, and passengers will not be allowed to board a flight without providing evidence of a negative test result.

As of Sunday, 134 cases of Omicron had been confirmed in the UK.

Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Sunday, December 5

161,548 (up 1,587)

  • 108,266 in Lincolnshire (up 1,091)
  • 25,884 in North Lincolnshire (up 194)
  • 27,398 in North East Lincolnshire (up 302)

2,517 deaths (up two)

  • 1,842 from Lincolnshire (up two)
  • 341 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
  • 335 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)

of which 1,505 hospital deaths (no change)

  • 929 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)
  • 45 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
  • 1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
  • 530 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)
DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF THE LATEST UPDATE. POSTCODE DATA INCLUDES DEATHS NOT IN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES OR IN HOSPITALS OUTSIDE AUTHORITY BOUNDARIES.