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Boris Johnson unveils ‘traffic light system’ for foreign holidays
6 April 2021, 07:50
The Prime Minister has said he is 'hopeful' of international travel returning next month.
Boris Johnson has refused to confirm whether foreign holidays will return next month, but has said a ‘traffic light system’ will be used when they do.
Under the lockdown roadmap for England, the earliest people will be allowed to take trips abroad is May 17.
Mr Johnson told a Downing Street press conference on Monday he is 'hopeful' of hitting the May 17 date but told Britons to wait before booking summer holidays.
He said: “I do not wish to give hostages to fortune or to underestimate the difficulties that we are seeing in some of the destination countries that people might want to go to.
“We don't want to see the virus being re-imported into this country from abroad, plainly there is a surge in other parts of the world and we have to be mindful of that and we have to be realistic.”
The PM has said the Government will give the tourism sector 'as much notice as we possibly can' before flights can restart.
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What is the ‘traffic light system’?
Under the plan, different countries will be graded green, amber or red according to their Covid-19 situation.
This includes their vaccinations, infection rates, the prevalence of variants of concern, and their genomic sequencing capacity.
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People travelling to low-risk or ‘green’ countries will not need to isolate on return to the UK, but they will need to take Covid tests before and after they arrive home.
Those returning from ‘amber list’ countries will have to self-isolate at home and take Covid tests pre-departure and on Day 2 and 8 after they arrive.
But travellers from ‘red list’ countries will have to isolate in a hotel for 11 days at a cost of £1,750.
They will also have to take a Covid tests pre-departure and on Day 2 and 8 after they arrive.
Non-essential international travel is currently banned, but The Global Travel Taskforce is set to publish a report later this week, setting out more details on the traffic light system.
