UK lifts ban on travel from Bahrain, UAE, India and Qatar

Agencies | London

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

The Boris Johnson government on Wednesday night moved the UAE, India, Bahrain and Qatar from the ‘red’ list of countries – from where travel is banned – to the ‘amber’ list, which means travellers from these countries will be allowed to travel to the UK from Sunday (August 8).

Officials said the decision was taken following an improvement in the Covid-19 situation in these countries in recent weeks and months.

All changes will take effect from 4 am on Sunday.

Passengers will need to take a Covid-19 test three days before travel, book and pay for tests to be taken after arrival in England and complete a passenger locator form.

On arrival in England, the passengers will need to quarantine at home or in the place they will be staying for 10 days, and take a test on or before the second day and on or after the eighth day of their arrival.

“The data for all countries will be kept under review and the government will not hesitate to take action where a country’s epidemiological picture changes,” an official statement said.

British transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “We’re committed to opening up international travel safely, taking advantage of the gains we’ve made through our successful vaccination programme, helping connect families, friends and businesses around the world”.

He added: “While we must continue to be cautious, today’s changes reopen a range of different holiday destinations across the globe, which is good news for both the sector and travelling public.”

The UK government also announced that arrivals from France to England will no longer need to quarantine if they are fully vaccinated. Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway will be added to the government’s green list, having demonstrated they posed a low risk to UK public health, officials added.

British health secretary Sajid Javid said: “As we learn to live with this virus, we’re continuing to take steps to safely reopen international travel based on the latest data and expert public health advice”.

He added: “The vaccines have already prevented around 60,000 deaths and 22 million infections in England and, with over seven in 10 adults in the UK now double-jabbed, we are building a wall of defence against the disease.”

Following an assessment of the latest data, Georgia, La Reunion, Mayotte and Mexico will be added to the red list, since they present a high public health risk to the UK from known variants of concern, known high-risk variants under investigation or as a result of very high in-country or territory prevalence of Covid-19.

Since February, anyone who arrives in the UK from a country in the ‘red’ has been required by law to book a stay in a managed quarantine facility for 10 days. In order to ensure taxpayers are not subsidising the costs of staying in these facilities, which have gone up, the cost will increase from Thursday (August 12).

The quarantine price for single adult travellers will increase from £1,750 (Dh8290) to £2,285 (Dh11,660) from August 12, and £1,430 (Dh7,297) for a second adult, the statement added.