UPDATED: UK has no plans to scrap COVID red travel list, PM’s spokesman says
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Britain has no plans to scrap a travel red list country system that requires arrivals to stay in a hotel to quarantine, a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Thursday.
The Telegraph had earlier reported that Britain plans to remove restrictions such as a travel “red list” of seven countries and hotel quarantine due to a declining COVID-19 threat from abroad, .
Ministers will meet to consider removing the final seven countries from the red list. Any traveller returning from them is currently required to quarantine in a UK hotel for 10 days at a cost of £2,285 per person.
Sources said it was “almost certain” that they would lift the restrictions on Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is understood next week’s Cop26 global summit on climate change in Glasgow, which delegates from the seven countries are attending, is a factor.
Ministers are also expected to consider a separate plan to scrap hotel quarantine, which even its pioneer, Australia, is abandoning in favour of vaccination as a defence against the importation of Covid.
Photo – A passenger arrives at Heathrow Airport in London, Britain. EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN
