HUMZA Yousaf has vented his “frustration” at Boris Johnson announcing England-only changes to testing rules for international travel despite four-nations talks over the issue.

While discussions had taken placed between the four nations yesterday, the Prime Minister announced changes for England only.

It means pre-departure Covid tests for travellers arriving in England will be scrapped, as will the requirement for travellers to self-isolate on arrival until they receive a negative PCR test.

The rules will instead revert to the system in place in October, with people required to take a lateral flow test no later than the end of day two after their arrival.

READ MORE: Covid in England: People without booster vaccine face ban from large venues

In Wales, health minister Eluned Morgan said the rules there will “reluctantly” follow suit.

The Scottish Health Secretary has promised an update for to Holyrood committees on Thursday afternoon.

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland’s Good Morning Scotland programme today, he said: “Although we engaged in a conversation with the UK Government, it is a source of frustration that if the UK Government unilaterally decides to move in a certain direction we end up with potentially a double whammy if we don’t align.”

Yousaf said that if Scottish ministers opt to follow a different course, this would cause further damage to the travel industry north of the border, without any public health benefit, as travellers could instead opt to fly to and from English airports.

He said: “It would be helpful if these discussions could not just happen on a four-nations basis, but any announcements could take place on a four-nations basis.

“Our aviation sector, which has undoubtedly been significantly affected throughout the course of the pandemic, gets a further hit and also we don’t end up realising any benefit if we have different public health measures in place, because ultimately a number of people may well travel from English airports if that is seen to be easier of cheaper.”

He said Scottish ministers will update Holyrood on Thursday afternoon by writing to the “relevant committees” of the Scottish Parliament.

The tougher travel regime had been brought in following the identification of the fast-spreading Omicron variant in South Africa last November.

But the Prime Minister said on Wednesday that with the variant now “so prevalent” in the UK, the measures are only having “limited impact on the growth in cases, while continuing to pose significant costs on our travel industry”.

He told MPs: “I can announce that in England from 4am on Friday, we will be scrapping the pre-departure test, which discourages many from travelling for fear of being trapped overseas and incurring significant extra expense.”

The announcement covers passengers who are fully vaccinated or under the age of 18.

Meanwhile, Yousaf has warned the NHS faces "really difficult decisions" in the coming weeks as Omicron infections reach their peak.

With Covid infections now in the worst case scenario level as set out in a Scottish Government paper on Omicron, he told how the health service faces a "perfect storm" over the winter period.

The Scottish Government paper, published in December, warned that in the worst case scenario, the number of coronavirus cases reported each day could hit between 7,500 and 25,000.

Earlier this week Scotland recorded a record high number of cases for the pandemic, with 20,217 infections reported in just one day - with more than a third (34.9%) of all cases coming back positive.

"We're clearly into the worst case scenario in terms of levels of infection," Yousaf told BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme on Thursday.

He added that as Omicron "thankfully" tends to be a less severe infection, this will "hopefully give us a more optimistic picture in terms of hospitalisations".

However he warned: "Even a small percentage of a big number is itself a big number at a time when the NHS doesn't have much headroom at all, and that is putting real pressure, coupled with staff absences, on our NHS and social care system.

"I don't think there's any way of sugar coating the fact that these next few weeks will probably be amongst the most difficult our NHS has ever faced in its 73-year existence.

"We are facing pressures on a number of fronts, we have the pandemic backlog that has built up over the last 21-odd months, we have high levels of staff absences, with increases because of Omicron and its higher transmissibility.

READ MORE: Omicron in Scotland: Where are the confirmed cases of the Covid variant?

"Then of course we are also treating people, over 1,200 people who are in hospital with Covid."

The number of people in hospital who have Covid has increased by 80% over the past week to stand at 1223, figures published on Wednesday showed.

Yousaf added cases are rising "during the winter months when we tend to see busier hospitals, more pressure on our health service".

This, he said, "means there is a perfect storm in place across the winter".
The Health Secretary was blunt as he warned: "This is going to be an extremely challenging period."

He pledged the Government will do "everything we can", with efforts being made to treat people at risk of requiring hospital care at home with new anti-viral medications.

"Hopefully that helps us with our capacity challenges," he said.

But despite this, he said NHS bosses across Scotland are "already making exceptionally difficult decisions in terms of prioritising care".

Yousaf said: "Ultimately the health service will be there to assist, to support, to care, to treat you.

"What we are saying to people is that in these next few weeks there will be significant, significant pressure on the health service, so please do make sure you get the right treatment at the right time at the right place.

"Clearly what we can't do is stop people having heart attacks, strokes, coming in to emergency care, but yes where health boards have to make really difficult decisions around non-emergency care they are already doing that, and we are seeing examples of that up and down the country.

"Nobody takes those decisions lightly, and of course we will look to restart treatment as best as we possibly can. There is no doubt at all we will prioritise certain treatments, such as cancer treatment for example.

"These are really difficult times therefore they precipitate we need difficult decisions being made."