The UK will allow arrivals who are fully vaccinated to avoid
quarantine if they are travelling from amber list countries, the Government has
announced.
The measures will be introduced in phases, starting with UK
residents. No fixed date has been given but the Government said this would be
“later in the summer” and that a date would be announced next month. At the same time, it would remove the guidance that people
should not travel to amber countries.
Further details will be set out next month including how the
rules will apply to those unable to be vaccinated.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “We’re moving forward
with efforts to safely reopen international travel this summer, and thanks to
the success of our vaccination programme, we’re now able to consider removing
the quarantine period for fully vaccinated UK arrivals from amber countries –
showing a real sign of progress.
“It’s right that we continue with this cautious approach, to
protect public health and the vaccine rollout as our top priority, while
ensuring that our route out of the international travel restrictions is
sustainable.”
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said: “It is very positive news
that ministers are following the science and that fully vaccinated people will
be able to travel safely without quarantine later this summer.
“We are a cosmopolitan country, a small island with strong links
to the rest of the world. Exporters want to get out and sell their goods to the
world…We will work with the government to make this happen as soon as possible
and let Britain fly!”
Charlie Cornish, CEO of Manchester Airports Group, said:
“Stating an intention to enable double vaccinated people to travel to amber
countries without the need to self-isolate on return is long overdue and
this policy must be implemented as soon as possible.
“Vague and open-ended promises are just not good enough.”
Jason Oshiokpekhai, managing director of Global Travel
Collection UK said: “We urgently need more clarity on this - we have already
lost a significant portion of what we had expected to be our life-line recovery
period, there is no reason why we should not be benefiting from the profound
progress we have made with our vaccination programme.
“Right now, we have over 60 per cent of our UK population double
vaccinated with a protection that has proved efficacy against all circulating
variants. Pairing this with the news of zero variants imported from over 20,000
passengers returning from amber list countries, the question begs – what are we
waiting for?”
The announcement came as the Government made changes to the traffic light system.