UK's Simplified International Travel & Countries Off the Red List

UK’s Simplified International Travel & Countries Off the Red List

The United Kingdom has made some major announcements regarding international travel making visiting England a little easier.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has announced via Twitter that from 4 October, there will be a single red list of countries from where travellers arriving in England must stay in a government-supervised hotel.

The current system is separated into green, amber and red-listed countries and each group with its own requirements when it comes to quarantining, PCR testing and vaccination status. But from October 4 2021, there just will be a single red list.

The updated travel rules state that fully vaccinated arrivals coming from low-risk countries will no longer have to do a pre-departure COVID test, nor will they be required to take the costly PCR COVID tests on arrival.

And the day 2 test, currently an obligatory PCR test taken after arriving in the UK, will be replaced with a cheaper lateral flow alternative.

Countries Moved Off the UK's Red List

For the past few weeks, the UK has had 62 countries on its red list. That means travellers from 62 countries must spend 11 nights in hotel quarantine upon arrival to the UK and take day 2 and day 8 tests – at their own expense.

Grant Shapps has now announced that eight countries will be removed from the red list from 22 September.

The following countries will be removed from the red list.

Bangladesh
Egypt
Kenya
The Maldives

Oman
Pakistan
Sri Lanka
Turkey

Unfortunately, South Africa did not make the cut.

To get a full list of countries on the red list, check out the official website.

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