This may change tomorrow.....
Travel red list and hotel quarantine set to be scrapped
Relaxation of rules, to be considered by ministers on Thursday, comes amid dramatic weakening in Covid threat from overseas
By Charles Hymas, Home Affairs Editor 27 October 2021 • 8:00pm
Hotel quarantine is expected to be replaced by a requirement for travellers to self-isolate at home for 10 days, irrespective of whether or not they are fully jabbed Credit: Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
The travel
red list and hotel quarantine are set to be scrapped under plans, to be considered by ministers on Thursday, to ease restrictions in face of the declining Covid threat from abroad.
Ministers will meet to consider removing
the final seven countries from the red list. Any traveller returning from them is currently required to quarantine in a UK hotel for 10 days at a cost of £2,285 per person.
Sources said it was "almost certain" that they would lift the restrictions on Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Haiti and the Dominican Republic. It is understood next week's
Cop26 global summit on climate change in Glasgow, which delegates from the seven countries are attending, is a factor.
Ministers are also expected to consider a separate plan to
scrap hotel quarantine, which even its pioneer, Australia, is abandoning in favour of vaccination as a defence against the importation of Covid.
It is expected to be replaced by a requirement for travellers to self-isolate at home for 10 days, irrespective of whether or not they are fully jabbed. This may not be announced on Thursday, and might not be enacted until the New Year.
Nearly 200,000 people returning from red list countries have been forced to
quarantine in hotels since the regime was introduced at the height of the pandemic at the start of the year.
Although the red list will disappear with the removal of the seven countries, it is thought likely that ministers will keep it in reserve in the event of the emergence of
new Covid variants or or a resurgence in the virus. Anyone returning from a red list country would then have to quarantine at home.
