Arrivals from France to England, Scotland and Wales will no longer need to
quarantine if they have been fully vaccinated in the UK, US or Europe with
effect from 4am on Saturday 8 August, following announcements from their respective governments. The Northern Ireland government has yet to announce if it will make a similar change.
Despite it being on the government's amber list and a change in the rules for doubly
jabbed travellers, France had previously been singled out because of a rise in the incidence of
the beta variant, creating an amber-plus category in the government's traffic light system for travel risk assessment.
It has also been announced that Austria, Germany,
Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway will be added to the
UK’s green list from the same date, as part of a regular review of the system.
At the same time, India, Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE will
be moved from the red to the amber list, as the situation in these countries has
improved.
It is not all one-way traffic. Georgia, La Reunion, Mayotte and
Mexico have been moved from the amber to the red list. The review will also see the cost of mandatory hotel quarantine rise sharply.
The government has also recommended
that arrivals from Spain use a PCR test
as their pre-departure test wherever possible, as a
precaution against the increased prevalence of the virus and variants in the
country.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps
said: “We are committed to opening up international travel safely, taking
advantage of the gains we’ve made through our successful vaccination programme,
helping connect families, friends and businesses around the world."
Read the industry's reaction to the changes here.