UK to remove all countries from its COVID travel ban red list

Starting Monday, the UK will take away the remaining seven nations from its COVID-19 journey ban purple listing, which will probably be reviewed each three weeks and revised in case of rising COVID variant threats, the British authorities has introduced.

From 4am on Monday, the remaining seven locations on the UK’s COVID-19 journey ban purple listing – Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela – will probably be eliminated, it mentioned in an replace on Thursday.

The purple listing itself has not been scrapped and will probably be reviewed each three weeks, with restrictions imposed in case of rising COVID variant threats.

The Division for Transport (DfT) mentioned that Delta is now the dominant COVID variant in most nations all over the world, which implies the danger of recognized variants getting into the UK has diminished.

“That is one other step in the fitting path for worldwide journey with extra excellent news in the present day for passengers, companies and the journey sector,” mentioned UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps.

“Whether or not it is reuniting relations or making it simpler for companies to commerce, the success of the vaccine rollout each at dwelling and overseas has allowed us to achieve this milestone. Nevertheless, we should not be complacent and stay able to spring into motion and defend our hard-won good points if wanted,” he mentioned.

The journey rules between India and the UK for totally vaccinated passengers had been eased earlier this month, with Covishield-vaccinated Indians not required to bear self-isolation at a declared deal with on entry into Britain.

Travellers coming from purple listing nations continued to be subjected to a compulsory 10-day quarantine at a government-sanctioned facility. The most recent replace means travellers vaccinated with UK-recognised vaccines will all face comparable worldwide journey guidelines.

“The purple listing and quarantine stay important in defending our borders – we’re retaining a small variety of quarantine rooms on standby and won’t hesitate to take swift motion by including nations to the purple listing if the danger will increase once more,” mentioned UK Well being Secretary Sajid Javid.

The DfT mentioned authorities scientists will proceed to carefully monitor variants of concern so as to make sure the UK’s method stays “proportionate”, surveillance by way of common testing persevering with all through.

In the meantime, underneath guidelines efficient since October 24, totally vaccinated travellers returning to England from nations not on the journey ban purple listing – together with India – can use a COVID unfavourable Lateral Circulate Check (LFT) as a substitute of the costlier Polymerase Chain Response (PCR) take a look at.

All travellers should full a obligatory passenger locator kind previous to journey, together with offering a take a look at reserving reference quantity provided by a testing supplier.

Passengers who aren’t totally vaccinated with an authorised vaccine should nonetheless take a PCR take a look at on day 2 and day 8 take a look at and full 10 days self-isolation on entry to the UK.

It comes because the UK recorded 39,842 coronavirus circumstances on Thursday, reflecting a downward pattern over the previous few days having crossed 50,000 each day circumstances final week.