UK to cut its travel ‘red list’ to just nine countries from 54

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to open up more countries for quarantine-free travel, with the nation’s “red list” of destinations getting slashed to just nine from 54. However, fully vaccinated Indians must still quarantine on arrival in the UK.

In a tit-for-tat, India on Friday decided that UK nationals arriving to the nation will have to undergo mandatory 10-day quarantine from October 4 (Sunday midnight).

The Sunday Telegraph reported that fully vaccinated arrivals from countries including Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and South Africa will no longer have to quarantine in a government-designated hotel for 10 days from later this month.

Currently, UK’s hotel quarantine policy for high-risk countries costs £2,285 an adult, which had put off many people from visiting the nation. A surge in travel and bookings, however, seems to have led to the relaxation in the nation’s quarantine rules.

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The UK is planning to relax the travel rules from October 4 by scrapping its “amber list” for medium-risk destinations and no longer requiring fully vaccinated passengers to take a COVID test before they arrive in the country from places not on the “red list”. The UK government also said that from later in October, arrivals to the nation will no longer have to take a PCR test two days after landing, and can instead opt for the cheaper lateral flow test.

On Thursday, the UK authorities had raised concerns over India’s vaccination certificate format, which resulted in inoculated travellers from India being treated as unvaccinated.

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