Coronavirus: UK opens up travel to 60 countries

Hopes that trips to the UAE will be allowed once winter holiday season begins

The UK is scrapping its14-day quarantine rule for arrivals from about 60 countries deemed 'lower risk' for coronavirus. AP

The British government has opened up 60 countries to UK holidaymakers seeking to travel overseas during the summer.

In an effort to save the airline industry from collapse, Britain's Department for Transport publicised a list of 60 “low risk” countries to which people could travel without an enforced 14-day quarantine on their return home.

Currently the lifting of quarantine rules applies to England only. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have not yet decided when to ease travel restrictions.

The move also aims to offer people summer holiday options as well as provide income for airlines that are on the brink of bankruptcy.

The government’s primary goal has been to open up travel to Mediterranean countries despite the UK’s relatively high domestic infection rate.

The decision will follow a traffic light system, drawn from each country’s handling of the coronavirus and its current infection rates. Countries registering “green” are free to be visited while trips to nations on “amber” are also allowed without an enforced quarantine on return.

The UK also named several “red” countries where quarantine-free travel is not permitted. They include the United States, Brazil, Russia and Iran.

There are indications that Britain might quickly change its policy as infection rates rise or fall. “We just need to get the structure right first,” said a Whitehall source. “It might be that we drop one country, put one in and drop another. We can do that short notice.”

Travellers can depart immediately but the change in quarantine rules for returnees will be introduced in England only from next Friday, July 10, with Germany, France, Spain and Italy as well as Canada, Turkey and Thailand among those in the first wave of the agreement.

The list also includes all British Overseas Territories such as Bermuda and Gibraltar. But countries on the list with low infection rates, such as Greece, Australia and New Zealand, have banned British travellers over the UK’s high coronavirus rate.

The move was welcomed by British airlines, which said the relaxed rules came just in time for the peak summer travel season.

A spokesman for Airlines UK, which represents British Airways and easyJet, said: “This gives a clear path to opening further predominantly long-haul destinations in the weeks ahead, and we look forward to working with ministers on measures to mitigate the risk from red countries such as via voluntary testing.”

The announcement allows British citizens to take foreign holidays for the first time since lockdown began on March 23.

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