The Scottish and Welsh government have urged Downing Street to bring in “tougher” travel rules to tackle the spread of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 across the UK.
Scotland’s first minister Nicola Sturgeon said she and Welsh counterpart Mark Drakeford had written to Boris Johnson to demand a “tightening” of rules so arrivals in UK have to self-isolate for eight days.
The SNP leader and Welsh Labour leader have also requested that arrivals take a PCR test on day eight as well as day two.
“Anything less than a four nations approach will be ineffective. We hope a four nations approach can be agreed,” said Ms Sturgeon a news conference on Monday.
Ms Sturgeon and Mr Drakeford have also called on Mr Johnson to immediately convene a Cobra meeting with representatives from the four nations on Monday.
Scotland has not found any evidence to suggest that community transmission of the Omicron variant of Covid is either sustained or widespread, after six cases were found in the country.
The Scottish government had earlier said that six cases were found in Scotland, with some of the cases not linked to international travel, raising concerns that the new coronavirus variant is already spreading in the community.
“Let me stress there is no evidence yet that this is sustained, nor any evidence from the enhanced surveillance that it is widespread at this stage,” Ms Sturgeon said in her news conference.
The SNP chief said it was unlikely but not impossible that cases of the Omicron variant were linked to the recent Cop26 conference in Glasgow. “If you consider the timelines of Cop, it is not impossible – but it’s perhaps also not probable that there are connections to Cop.”