BRITS are “unlikely” to be able to jet to any new green list countries after this week’s review, The Sun can reveal.
Transport Sec Grant Shapps is not currently planning to open up more holiday favourites despite Department of Health figures showing ZERO vaccine busting covid strains were important into Britain from amber countries like France, Spain or Greece.
Travel bosses want to scrap self-isolation for double jabbed Brits as soon as possible, and ministers are confident of setting up a new system by the end of July.
Insiders said there was unlikely to be any new additions to the list at the end of this week – despite Britain’s covid rates soaring much higher than favourite .
In the three weeks to June 9, 1418 people arrived from Spain, 1222 from France, and 484 Greece.
Just FOUR travellers tested positive for the bug, and none were infected with a variant of concern.
The best travellers can hope for is a few ‘red’ countries, turning amber.
A source said: “It’s very unlikely any country will go green this week.
"All the focus seems to be on making sure domestic restrictions are lifted, with a focus on tourism abroad later in the summer.”
Boris told reporters this afternoon: "It will be a difficult year for travel, there will be hassle, there will be delays I'm afraid, because the priority has to be to keep the country safe and stop the virus coming back in."
As it stands, people travelling to the UK from red list countries will have to quarantine in a specialist hotel on arrival.
A mandatory 10-day stay in one of these hotels will cost travellers £1,750 each.
If passengers leave the quarantine hotel before their 10 days are up, they will be handed a £5,000 coronavirus fine, but this figure can increase up to £10,000.
And people travelling to the UK from amber list countries have to quarantine for 10 days at home.
All amber list arrivals will also need a pre-arrival Covid test, as well as tests on day two and day eight of quarantine.
Yesterday Dr Susan Hopkins said there may be "alternatives to isolation" for holidaymakers who have received both of their Covid jabs – but warned that Brits should stick to home holidays this summer.
Asked if there is a chance those who have had two jabs could go abroad, she told the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show: "We'll be looking at the evidence from other countries.
"We've talked a lot to countries like Israel who are ahead of us in the vaccination campaign, and they are now really looking at allowing people to come into their country who've had two vaccines and not needing to isolate.
"And they are allowing their population to travel more.
"We will need to be alert and will need to consider how we can measure the response of these vaccines to new variants that come along.
"But we are moving steps forward, and I think that in a time in the future, I'm not sure when, I can imagine a situation where we will have alternatives to isolation for people who have two doses of the vaccine."
When asked about holidaying this summer, she said: "It depends on the routes and the risks. That will be for the Government to decide what they want to do.
"I think we should be predominantly deciding to holiday at home this summer while we get everyone vaccinated."
This comes after data shows cases across the UK are rising again at an alarming rate.
Source: Read Full Article
