The telegraph
Don’t book your overseas summer vacation just yet, Boris Johnson says, as the end of the travel ban may be delayed
Brits shouldn’t book a summer vacation just yet, as the foreign travel ban may not be lifted on May 17 due to the risk of importing Covid variants, the government has warned. In an update to its global travel review, the government said it hoped people could still have summer vacation this year, but warned it was “too early to know what’s possible” and that the opening of Foreign travel is possible delayed beyond mid-May. Boris Johnson’s roadmap originally stipulated that trips abroad could resume “at the earliest” on May 17, but since then much of Europe has entered a third wave of the pandemic, accompanied by an increase in Covid variants and low vaccination rates. “Given the state of the pandemic abroad and the progress of vaccination programs in other countries, we are not yet able to confirm that non-essential international travel can be resumed from this point on,” the document reads. “Taking into account the recent situation with variants and the evidence on the effectiveness of vaccines against them, we will confirm in advance whether non-essential international travel can resume on May 17th or whether we will have to wait longer before canceling outbound travel Restriction. “The document confirms that the lifted travel ban will be replaced by a risk-based traffic light system. The quarantine for returning British will only be removed from the green list for countries, although they will still have to pay for tests before and after departure. The risk is based on Vaccinations, infection rates, the prevalence of critical variants and a country’s genome sequencing capacity – or access to genome sequencing – the document said it was too early to say which countries would be on the green list when ministers started one Expect limited numbers. “Right now, the government is advising people n not to book a summer vacation abroad until the picture is clearer, “she added. The global travel task force, chaired by Grant Shapps, Secretary of Transportation, will release details of the traffic light system later this week. However, those traveling from green list countries are expected to pay for a PCR test before leaving, then likely a cheaper lateral flow test on or after arriving in the UK. Travelers from Yellow Listed countries with medium risk, including variants, are required to have a test before departure and quarantine for up to ten days upon arrival. You must have a PCR test on days two and eight with the option of testing on the fifth to be released from quarantine if negative. Hotel quarantine of up to 11 days will continue for arrivals from Red List countries at the cost of £ 1,750 per person with tests on days two and eight. The review’s update shows that vaccination certificates could allow fully vaccinated travelers to bypass some of the testing and quarantine. “The vaccination program could provide a more stable way out of the need for such restrictions – provided we see adequate efficacy against all worrying variants – which means the role of COVID status certification is critical to this work,” it said Document. “The current intent is for the NHS solution to make international travel easier when non-essential international travel resumes when certification is required, and we will seek to reach agreements with other countries and international organizations to achieve mutual recognition of certificates guarantee.”
