In the latest COVID travel development, the UK has removed all the countries from its COVID-19 red list. The British government on Thursday announced that it is removing the last seven countries from its red list, which means now fully vaccinated travellers will no longer have to quarantine after arriving in the country. The last seven countries that were removed from the list are Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. The changes will come into effect at 4 AM on Monday.
The decision means that travellers fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will no longer have to quarantine in a government hotel. Earlier, travellers arriving in the UK from ‘red list’ countries had to spend 11 nights in a government facility which cost them around 2000 pounds ($3,000).
Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary, said that “as a precautionary measure” it was needed later. The minister further said that the country will also approve vaccinations given in more than 30 additional countries, including Peru and Uganda.
There was a time when Britain had marked several countries in its ‘red list’ category. Once there were more than a dozen of nations on the list, and several in the amber category for medium risk, or green for low risk. But on October 4, Britain scrapped the amber and green categories and now the government has also removed the red list.
Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, called it a significant step that was required to normalis international travel in the country. Apparently, the UK was one of the worst COVID-19 hit countries in the world recording more than 140000 COVID-19 deaths.
