Travel News
UK To Announce New International Travel Rules - TVC360
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to meet the cabinet to sign off the next stage of lockdown easing in England, which will see non-essential shops reopen and pubs and restaurants start serving outdoors from 12 April.
Afterwards, the prime minister will hold a Downing Street briefing, where he is expected to confirm countries will be graded under a traffic light system when international leisure travel resumes.
Downing Street had earlier disclosed in a statement late Saturday that travel destinations will be ranked green, amber or red according to virus risk.
The announcement comes as the UK has set a tentative date of May 17 to relaunch international travel.
The government said the new system “will help ensure the UK’s vaccine progress isn’t jeopardised and provide clear guidance for travellers”.
People heading to low-risk “green” countries will simply take a virus test before and after they travel, the government said.
But those going to amber or red countries will have to self-isolate or quarantine afterwards.
Currently people arriving in the UK from abroad are required to self-isolate for 10 days.
Johnson is also set to outline plans for coronavirus passports – recording whether people had been vaccinated, recently tested negative or had natural immunity – as a means of enabling mass-audience events to take place in the future.
The government has also announced that everyone in England is to be given access to two rapid coronavirus tests a week from Friday, under an extension of its testing programme.
The lateral flow kits, which can provide results in around 30 minutes, will be available for free at testing sites, pharmacies and through the post.
The health secretary said it would help squash any outbreaks as lockdown eases but critics of the programme say it risks becoming a “scandalous” waste of money.
The UK has already given out more than 31 million first vaccine doses and over 5 million second doses.