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Updated October 29th, 2021 at 10:38 IST

COVID-19: UK to remove all countries from "red list" from November 1; Read details here

The British government has decided to remove the remaining seven countries from England's COVID-19 "red list" from November 1. Read the revised UK travel guide.

Reported by: Dipaneeta Das
COVID-19
Image: AP/Representative | Image:self
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The British government has decided to remove the remaining seven countries from England's COVID-19 "red list" from November 1, BBC reported. This means travellers from Colombia, Peru, Panama, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Venezuela and Ecuador will no longer require to undergo mandatory on-arrival hotel quarantine, similar to other travellers to England. However, the UK has not completely ruled out the UK travel list system and could opt for it in case a situation arises.

"We have been able to do this now because the variants of concern that we have been tracking are no longer of concern to the chief medical officers," the UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps asserted on Thursday, as reported by BBC. He also said that the step will be a 'huge boost' for travellers as well as employees in the travel sector.

Shapps also announced that the UK has added eligible travellers from over 30 new countries, including Peru, Uganda, Argentina, Tanzania and Cambodia in the "inbound vax policy," bringing the total number of countries on this list to over 135. Meanwhile, the British government has decided to keep the "red list category in place as a precautionary measure to protect public health and are prepared to add countries and territories back if needed, as the UK’s first line of defence," Shapps wrote on Twitter.

Speaking to the media on Thursday, the UK Transport Secretary noted that government would keep "several hundred" rooms available as a prudent step adding, those are being kept as a standby without any "intention" of using them. "We'll review it again in the New Year...but we don't want to have to reset up a system from scratch or a particular concern was seen in a particular country and we wanted to be able to have quarantine as a mandatory facility," Sky News quoted Shapps as saying.


 

UK COVID restrictions

Travellers from these destinations will now no longer require to undergo mandatory 10 days paid quarantine on arrival. The rules were begun in February in response to new COVID-19 variants emerging in different parts of the world.

However, travellers will need to produce complete vaccination against COVID-19 certificates on arrival. Contrastingly, the debate over recognition of vaccine certificates is still pending as arrivals from a list of locations, not on the COVID-19 vaccine approved program, do not count as fully vaccinated at the UK border, Sky News reported.

(Image: AP/Representative)

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Published October 29th, 2021 at 10:38 IST

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