UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced that travellers returning to England from countries on England’s Amber List, and who have been fully vaccinated in the UK, will no longer need to self-isolate for 10 days on their return, from July 19.
But, according to British press reports, these travellers will still need to take a test three days prior to departure when returning from the Amber List country, to ensure they are negative before they travel. They will also have to take another PCR test by the end of day two after arriving back.
Travellers must show their vaccination status on their passenger locator forms and this will need to be checked by the transport operator before travel.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland usually follow England’s lead, so it is most likely these rules will apply across the UK.
Initially, said the Transport Secretary, the new rule would apply only to those who had been vaccinated in the UK. He had no timeline to indicate when travellers vaccinated in other countries might enter the UK from Amber List countries without the need to self-isolate. “We want to welcome international visitors back to the UK and are working to extend our approach to vaccinated passengers from important markets later this summer, such as the United States and the EU.” He promised to outline a plan on the opening up of the UK to vaccinated people from other countries in the future.
The Minister said the decision was not “just about holidays”, but was intended to help businesses trade and grow and was about supporting the aviation sector, which hundreds of thousands relied on, an industry that the government had backed with £7bn (R138,5bn) of support through the pandemic. “The only way to actually recover is to allow them to fly and for travel to resume again,” he said.
The UK Government will also, on July 19, remove its current discouragement for people travelling to Amber List countries.
The Minister concluded: “I want to be clear that, as we begin to ease restrictions, travel will not be the same as before. People should continue to check Foreign Office travel advice, travel where possible outside busy weekend times and, importantly, they should expect that their experience at the border will be different because longer waiting times will be necessitated.”
