Portugal makes travel ‘green list’
PEOPLE in England can visit Portugal, Gibraltar and Israel from May 17 without self-isolating on their return, the Department for Transport (DfT) has announced.
They are the only popular summer shorthaul destinations on the Government’s new green list for travel.
Turkey, the Maldives and Nepal have been added to the red list.
People returning from those countries after 4am on Wednesday will be required to stay in a quarantine hotel for 11 nights at a cost of £1,750 for solo travellers.
The DfT also announced that from May 17, people who have had both doses of a coronavirus vaccine will be able to demonstrate their status on the NHS app currently used to book medical appointments and order repeat prescriptions.
People who do not have the app – which is different from the Covid-19 app – will be able to request an NHS letter from that date.
The green list also consists of Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland and the Faroe Islands and the Falklands.
This is in addition to the remote territories of the Falklands, South Georgia and the
South Sandwich Islands, Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the removal of international travel restrictions was “necessarily cautious” and that the Government must “make absolutely sure” the countries the UK reconnects with are safe.
He said: “We in this country have managed to construct a fortress against Covid. But the disease is still prevalent in other parts of the world, most notably at the moment in India.
“In fact, more new cases of Covid have been diagnosed around the world in the last seven days than at any time since the pandemic began.”
He added: “That’s why today’s announcement, removing the stay in the UK restrictions from May 17, is necessarily cautious.
“We must make absolutely sure that the countries we reconnect with are safe, that their infection rates are low and their vaccination rates are high.
“It means making sure we are not incubating the most dangerous variants that they’re not and that they have safe and secure surveillance in place.”
Meanwhile, the UK’s largest holiday firm insisted prices for summer breaks have not been ramped up.
Tui’s managing director for the UK and Ireland, Andrew Flintham, said it will be “a long time” before travel companies can consider boosting profit margins.
He said: “Our prices are very, very stable. They’re pretty much like for like, flat, year over year. There isn’t a big increase in there.
“We’ve got plenty of holidays to sell. I think everybody in the industry has.
“It’ll be a long time before the idea of trying to increase prices to make more money. We want to get people away on holiday, having a great time, because we think they genuinely all deserve it.”