On Thursday, the UK government announced that South Africa has come of the COVID red list, which has been cut from 54 to just seven.
Brazil and Mexico also come off the red list, which requires travellers to quarantine in an approved hotel at their cost for 10 full days – at a cost of £2285 for one person. The seven countries remaining on the red list are Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Vaccinated travellers from South Africa will be treated the same as returning fully-vaccinated UK residents so long as they have not visited a red-list country in the 10 days before arriving in England. All incoming travellers will still complete a passenger locator form.
UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes begin on Monday and “mark the next step” in opening travel.
The UK’s travel rues have recently been simplified, with the amber list removed entirely, and advice against holidays changed for 32 countries. Arrivals from 37 more destinations will have their vaccination status certificates recognised, meaning they can avoid more expensive post-arrival testing requirements.
Speaking to the BBC, British expats Matt and Hannah Pirnie, who have lived in South Africa for a decade, said the separation has been difficult.
“It’s been a long pandemic for us. Not seeing family, not being allowed to go back, but more importantly grandparents not being able to come here and see their grandkids. It’s been a long two years,” Matt said.
“First of all when all the aeroplanes stopped initially – that was quite anxiety provoking – and then to be put on the red list for so long has just been quite hard to wrap your head around why,” Hannah adds.
Announcing the latest changes, Mr Shapps said the government was “making it easier for families and loved ones to reunite”. He said that with fewer restrictions “and more people travelling, we can all continue to move safely forward together along our pathway to recovery”.
In addition to the much-abbreviated red list, the government said passengers would soon be able to use a photograph of a lateral flow test as a minimum requirement to verify a negative result, and the more expensive ‘day two’ PCR test was to be replaced with a lateral flow test.
Source: BBC News
