*****This article has been updated following the news that Spain has been placed back on the quarantine requirement list.*****
The UK government has added five more countries to its list of travel corridors, but arrivals from Spain will now have to self isolate as cases of Covid-19 spike in the country.
From July 28 travellers from Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia, Slovenia and St Vincent and the Grenadines will no longer have to self-isolate on arrival into England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
The Scottish government has also confirmed that arrivals from the five nations will also be exempt from quarantine restrictions from the same date.
These add to the existing list of exemptions which came into force on July 10, full details of which can be seen on the gov.uk website here. The government says it will now update the list on a weekly basis “to reflect the shifting international health picture”.
The government said the five additional destinations had been added “after reviewing the latest risk assessments”.
But over the weekend Spain was placed back on the quarantine requirement list, due to an increase in new Covid-19 cases.
Arrivals into the UK from Spain will once again have to self-isolate for 14 days – the requirement was announced on Saturday evening, and came into force on Sunday morning, meaning that some travellers who had already departed on Spanish trips will now have to self-isolate on return.
The UK government added that border health measures remain subject to review every 28 days in England, and said that “We are prepared to respond rapidly if the health situation of a country deteriorates”.
Responding to the news of the five countries being added to the list of travel corridors, Karen Dee, chief executive of the Airport Operators Association, said:
“Reviewing the exemptions to quarantine measures on a weekly basis represents good progress in the development of a risk-based border health system for international travel.
“The industry is working hard to ensure passenger health and safety while opening up routes to destinations across the world. However there are still many countries where travel is not possible, without a 14-day quarantine on return; we look forward to more routes opening up in the coming weeks, helping our beleaguered aviation sector to bounce back from this crisis.”
