Government confirms plans to remove quarantine for inbound amber list travellers

The UK government has confirmed plans to remove the quarantine period for travellers coming from amber list countries who are fully vaccinated, with full details to be set out next month.

The announcement followed the Global Travel Taskforce's checkpoint review and the rules are hoped to change later in the summer.

This is expected to occur in phases, starting with UK residents, who will still be required to take a pre-departure test and a test on day two, and any positive results will be sequenced to continue to manage the risk of importing variants.

The news was announced alongside an expansion of the travel ‘green list' from 4am on Wednesday 30 June to include Malta, Madeira, the Balearic Islands, several UK overseas territories and the Caribbean islands, including Barbados.

Transport secretary Grant Shapps said: "We're moving forward with efforts to safely reopen international travel this summer, and thanks to the success of our vaccination programme, we're now able to consider removing the quarantine period for fully vaccinated UK arrivals from amber countries – showing a real sign of progress.

"It's right that we continue with this cautious approach, to protect public health and the vaccine roll-out as our top priority, while ensuring that our route out of the international travel restrictions is sustainable."

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