From August 8, fully vaccinated travellers from India will no longer have to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days as the United Kingdom government on Thursday moved the country from its “red” to “amber list”.
Apart from India, other countries shifted to the ‘amber’ list are — Bahrain, Georgia, Mexico, UAE, and Qatar, and the French overseas territories of Reunion and Mayotte.
Under Britain’s traffic light system for international travel, returning from amber list countries means a 10-day quarantining at home.
The change, announced by the Department for Transport, comes into effect from 4 am local time on Sunday.
“The UAE, Qatar, India and Bahrain will be moved from the red list to the amber list. All changes come into effect Sun 8th August at 4am,” UK Transport Secretary tweeted.
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“While it’s right we continue our cautious approach, it’s great news to open more destinations for people wanting to connect with families, friends and businesses across the globe, all thanks to our successful domestic vaccination programme,” he said.
In April, Britain added India to it’s travel red-list amid concerns about the Delta variant of the coronavirus.This means that only British or Irish citizens or those who have residence rights in the UK will be allowed entry from India. On arrival, they are required to undergo a compulsory 10-day hotel quarantine.
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Meanwhile, seven countries are moving to the ‘green’ list Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Slovakia, Latvia, Romania and Norway and France has been moved off the “amber watchlist”.
For countries on the green list, people will not have to quarantine when returning from these nations, regardless of their vaccination status, although they will have to take a pre-departure test and another one two days after arrival.
The “green watchlist”, which gives travellers notice of countries whose green status is at risk of changing, remains in place and is unchanged with 16 countries on the list.
(With inputs from PTI)
