Only three weeks after the appearance of the Omicron variant started to trigger a new escalation of restrictions on the entry of passengers from some African countries (given the origin of this variant) by different governments around the world, including the UK, the latter finally decided today to ease them.
As of 4 AM London local time this Wednesday, December 15, Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe have been removed from the «red list», thereby allowing again the entry of those coming from there, independently of whether they are British citizens or residents, and with no need for quarantine in special hotels, which has a very high price.
Therefore, in practice, there is no longer any state on the British infamous «red list», and those who arrive, provided they have received the doses of the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna, Janssen, Sinovac, Sinopharm, or Covaxin vaccines, or have the vaccination certificate, will be allowed to enter the country again, or if they have a certificate of vaccination from countries that have been approved by the United Kingdom (see the details in this link), they only have to take a test within two days prior to the flight, book and pay for another test to be taken upon arrival, and remain isolated until they receive the result of the latter.
Those who are not vaccinated must, in addition to being tested before departure and upon arrival, take the third test on the eighth day, so that isolation can then be completed.
On this page of the British government, you can see the details of all the requirements.