International travel red list reduced to zero

The UK’s International travel red list has been reduced to zero.

UK Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, has announced that all seven countries remaining on the travel red list will be removed as of 4:00 am on Monday, November 1. Countries currently on the UK’s red list include Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela.

Posting on Twitter, Shapps said the category would remain in place “as a precautionary measure. All seven remaining countries on the red list will be REMOVED from Mon 1 Nov at 4:00 am in case countries needed to be added back in.

“We can also confirm that from Monday, eligible travellers from over 30 new countries and territories including Peru & Uganda will be added to our inbound vax policy, bringing the total number of countries on this list to over 135.

“We will 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,” he said.

The minister added that the policy for quarantine hotels will also remain in place in case guidance has to change. It looks like hotel quarantine stays have come to an end for now, with people able to travel to these countries without having to fork out £2,285 on an 11-night stay.

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Travel industry leaders and UK Health secretary Sajid Javid hailed the switch from PCR tests to cheaper lateral flow options as a “huge boost to the travel industry”. From Sunday, October 24, fully vaccinated passengers and most under-18s arriving from non-red-list countries were able to use a lateral flow test on or before day two of their arrival in England.

The newly revamped government portal listing providers of tests crashed on Friday however, leaving thousands of passengers in a panic who hadn’t printed off their forms.

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