NEW travel restrictions have come “too late” to prevent a potential wave of the omicron variant, a government adviser warned today. 

Professor Mark Woolhouse said that the reintroduction of pre-departure tests for travellers won’t make a “material difference” as cases of the variant are already “spreading pretty rapidly.”

“I think that may be a case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted,” he told BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. 

“If omicron is here in the UK, and it certainly is, if there’s community transmission in the UK, and it certainly looks that way, then it’s that community transmission that will drive a next wave.”

No 10 announced the “temporary” measure on Saturday, set to come into force on Tuesday, due to the rise in omicron cases linked to foreign travel. 

It means passengers will now be required to take a PCR test within 48 hours before travelling to Britain as well as a test within two days after their arrival. 

Passengers can only buy tests from a list of government-approved private providers, with some firms charging up to £399 per test. 

Labour urged the government today to take action to tackle “scandalous” costs of PCR testing.

Shadow transport secretary Louise Haigh said: “Unscrupulous private providers are pocketing millions, and leaving many families forced to shell out huge sums.
 
“The government must act ahead of the Christmas travel period, implement the recommendation of the regulator, and urgently consider bringing in a price cap to tackle the extortionate prices.”

A review of the Covid-19 testing market by the Competition and Markets Authority in September found private firms were setting “extremely high mark-ups” which “could not be explained by costs.”

It comes as the latest figures from the UK Health Security Agency show that a further 26 cases of the variant had been reported in Britain as of Saturday night, taking the total so far to 160.

Prof Woolhouse said that although the numbers of people with the omicron variant are “still quite small” and likely remain in the hundreds, they are “growing quite fast.”

But vaccinations will still be “very, very good” at protecting against the new variant, he said.