The UK government has announced that arrivals into England from France must
still quarantine for 10 days, at home or in other
accommodation, even if they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19. This is
despite the rules being relaxed for countries on England’s amber list, which
includes France, from today.
The government said that the decision
to exclude France is because of “the persistent presence of cases in France of
the beta variant, which was first identified in South Africa”. Anyone who has been in France in the last 10 days will
need to quarantine on arrival to England in their own accommodation and will
need a day two and day eight test, regardless of their vaccination status.
Health and social care secretary
Sajid Javid said: “We have always been clear that we will not hesitate to take
rapid action at our borders to stop the spread of Covid-19 and protect the
gains made by our successful vaccination programme.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps
said: “Travel will be different this year and whilst we are committed to
continuing to open up international travel safely, our absolute priority is to
protect public health here in the UK.”
Responding to the news of the creation
of an 'amber plus' category, Jason Oshiokpekhai, managing director of Global
Travel Collection UK, said: “The latest France travel update is
another example of new guidelines introduced at the eleventh hour that
contradict the global travel taskforce structure. Should a country be deemed
too unsafe for our double-vaccinated passengers, why are they not on the red list?
Another colour of the rainbow added to the traffic light system only sows more
confusion and destroys our progress in reviving business travel.”
An ABTA spokesperson said: “Continuing changes to travel restrictions will delay any
meaningful recovery for the industry and this news is just the latest example
of why a tailored package of financial support for the travel and tourism
sector must be introduced.”
Data analyst Tim White has told the Telegraph newspaper that arrivals from the Benelux countries and Germany may also be at risk of facing similar restrictions.