No major changes to UK travel list likely until August
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The four-week delay in removing coronavirus restrictions in England could lead to most European locations remaining on the “amber list” until August, the UK’s Independent has revealed.
This might mean bad news for the Maltese travel industry, as it is understood that the British government will keep quarantine rules in place for major holiday destinations through at least two more “traffic light” reviews – indicating no substantial easing of rules until 5 August.
The prime minister’s announcement that the final stage of the unlocking roadmap will be delayed from 21 June to 19 July comes four weeks after the 19-week ban on international leisure travel was lifted.
Government Ministers have defended this decision, with Transport Minister Grant Schapps saying that “the public has always known travel will be different this year and we must continue to take a cautious approach to reopening international travel in a way that protects public health and the vaccine rollout.”
The health secretary, Matt Hancock, told the Commons on 7 June: “A variant that undermines the vaccine effort would undermine the return to domestic freedom, and that must be protected at all costs.
With the delay in domestic reopening, the second review on 24 June is unlikely to include significant improvements for people hoping to travel. The third review is due to be announced on 15 July, before England unlocks – also with few changes expected. The Independent also reveals that Ministers are said to have been briefing that overseas travel at scale will not be allowed to happen before the end of July, which indicates the review on 5 August could be when quarantine is dropped from most major European destinations.
The Malta Hotel and Restaurants Association (MHRA) had expressed its frustration at the UK’s decision to leave Malta out of the green list, suggesting that there was no scientific reasoning and questioning “whether the British Government is taking political decisions that undermine the decades-old free movement of trade and services”.
