England lifts quarantine for 59 ‘low-risk’ nations
U.S. STILL RED-LISTED Exemptions won’t apply to passengers from America
LONDON: Current rules requiring passengers entering Britain to quarantine for 14 days are to be lifted from July 10 for those coming from 59 countries that are reported to have low incidence of coronavirus infections, including France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The US, however, remains on the red-list.
Transport secretary Grant Shapps said countries are labelled as red, amber or green. Amber countries would have reciprocal arrangements, meaning travellers from the UK will not have to quarantine on arrival there. The red list includes the US, which is the worst-hit country in terms of both Covid-19 infections and fatalities.
No country in south Asia is on the list. Passengers arriving from the US will continue to be subjected to quarantine rules. The foreign office will next week revise its travel advisory to reflect the new arrangement.
The list of 59 includes New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Hong
Kong, Hungary, Japan, Czech Republic, Finland, Turkey, Mauritius, South Korea and Luxembourg.
‘MORE INFECTIOUS STRAIN SPREADING’
A new, more infectious variant of the original strain of Covid-19 is now dominating current cases across the globe, according to a study by an international team of researchers, including from the University of Sheffield, which was published in the journal Cell on Wednesday.
The analysis of the virus’ genome sequence found that a mutation called “D614G” made the virus more infectious than the original strain, but did not cause more severe disease.
PUBS, RESTAURANTS SET TO REOPEN IN ENGLAND “Act responsibly,” UK PM Boris Johnson on Friday urged Britons as pubs, restaurants and museums are set to reopen on Saturday amid falling cases and anxiety about a second peak. The relaxation applies only to England, excluding Leicester.