At the beginning of the year, holidays and leisure trips were puton hold, leaving many of us wondering if we’d even get to go abroad in 2021.That being said, the Government is slowly re-introducing international travel,which will begin (hopefully!) from the 17th May, with certaindestinations being given a tick of approval for us Brits to visit.
Last summer, an ‘air corridor’ system was introduced that allowedpeople to go on holiday and upon their return, be able to resume normal liferather than quarantine, so long as they had gone somewhere which deemed by theGovernment as relatively safe. This has now been replaced with a newtraffic-light system, with all countries scored depending on different factorssuch as their vaccination rate.
You may be thinking, “This is great, but what if I want to gosomewhere and it gets taken off the green list?”. Well, there will be a greenwatchlist, which will give people an early warning, ahead of time that acountry is a risk of being demoted off the green list. This should stop youfinding yourself in a situation whereby a few days prior to departure, you’resuddenly told you can’t go away anymore, or at least not to that destination,or worse, travelling abroad for your destination to then be taken off the greenlist and having to make the decision on whether to return home early to avoidlong quarantine periods.
Do bear in mind that this system may not be adopted in Scotland,Wales or Northern Ireland as they all have different administrations. They maychoose to follow in the same footsteps, or they may go with a completelydifferent approach.
Set your alarms, because as of the 17th May at 12:01 amto be exact, Brits are allowed to travel to any of the 12 countries on thegreen list, without needing an excuse. Traveling for fun will no longer beillegal!
The traffic light system is there to determine which destinationswould require quarantining and where they would have to do it.
Those returning for a green list country will need a negative Covid-19 testbefore you depart and will not have to isolate once they are back in the UK.You will have to take a PCR test on day 2 of your arrival, but other than that,you can go back to work and resume your normal life.
For those coming back to England from an amber destination, you’ll need anegative Covid-19 test before you depart, and will have to isolate for 10 dayswhen you get back home. If you are considering this then do keep in mind thatyou will have to get a PCR test on days two and eight. You would still be ableto use the test-to-release system on day five, which would mean, should youhave a negative result, then you no longer need to quarantine.
If you are coming back from a red list country, you will need a negative covid-19 testbefore you depart and must enter a 10-day quarantine in a hotel deemed asacceptable by the government. Unlike returning from an amber country, thisquarantine stint can not be cut short and you must do a PCR test on days two andeight.
As of the 7th May 2021:
You may have hoping that popular destinations such as Spain,Italy, France and Greece are on the green list, however they are currently amber countries. This is not tosay this won’t change but for now, if you are planning on booking a trip to oneof these places do remember the quarantine rule.
Every three weeks the list will be formally reviewed and givecountries the chance to be promoted to the green list knocked down into a lowertier. The Government are keeping the green list very small initially, but havesuggested that more European countries will be added as vaccination ratesimprove in other countries and R-rates drop.
You are to use the NHS app as proof that you are vaccinated. Ifyour jab doesn’t show in the app or you don’t have a smartphone then you cancall the NHS on 119 and ask for a letter confirming your vaccinations.
The UK Government cannot decide whether you can enter a country ornot without being vaccinated, they just approve whether you can leave the UK ornot and which destinations they deem safe. Therefore, it is down to theindividual countries to decide whether or not they will accept travellers whohave no been fully vaccinated yet.
One of the biggest worries for ministers, scientists and us Britsare when new variants pop up, which may not be able to be fought off by thecurrent vaccine available. The Government are only allowing travel againbecause of how low fatality rates currently are in the UK, and the trafficlight system is there to only permit holidays without a need to quarantine inlow-risk countries.
The Government has made it clear that should they need tointervene or change rules because of a new variant, then they will do so,faster that the three-week review period.
We want to encourage you all to book a holiday and have something to look forward to after what has been a turbulent year for everyone. Our polices have enhance coronavirus cover to help protect both you and your holiday during these uncertain times. For information on our cover available, click here.
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