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Date Published: 03/07/2020

ARCHIVED - Foreign Office Travel Guidance to be relaxed as England scraps quarantine restrictions for Spain

ARCHIVED ARTICLE

Travelling to England from Spain will not require a 14 day quarantine from 10th July

<span style='color:#780948'>ARCHIVED</span> - Foreign Office Travel Guidance to be relaxed as England scraps quarantine restrictions for Spain

- Those travelling from all of the UK to Spain are not required to quarantine.

- Until 10th July passengers returning from Spain to all of the UK will still be required to quarantine. The Department of Transport says that those compelled to quarantine who return before that date will be able to end their quarantine on the 10th.

- From 10th July ENGLAND-based travellers will not be required to quarantine.

The British government has finally backed down regarding the whole topic of “safe air-bridges” or “travel corridors” scrapping the scheme which would end quarantine requirements for all those returning from holidays abroad to the UK and create safe travel hotpsots with reciprocal no-quarantine agreements in place.

Travellers from 59 countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy will no longer have to quarantine for two weeks when they enter England, as long as they haven't been in any of the countries not on the exemptions list in the past 14 days.

The full list of exempted countries is:

Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Croatia, Curaçao, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominica, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece(travellers will have to observe a 14 day quarantine when entering Greece), Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macau, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Netherlands, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Réunion, San Marino, Serbia, Seychelles, South Korea, Spain, St Barthélemy, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Pierre and Miquelon, Switzerland, Taiwan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Vatican City, Vietnam.

Travellers from anywhere not on that list will be required to quarantine for 14 days.

These are not reciprocal arrangements, so travellers entering these countries may have to quarantine on entry (eg. Greece).

The BBC reports that;

Fewer than half the countries and territories on the list have no restrictions at all for arriving UK visitors.

Greece, a popular holiday destination with a low number of coronavirus deaths, says it will not accept direct UK flights until at least mid-July.

Austria requires Britons to self-isolate unless they have a recent medical certificate or test negative for coronavirus on arrival

New Zealand has barred almost all foreign travellers from visiting

Those entering Australia require a special exemption visa and face a mandatory quarantine

However, the French government has suggested UK travellers will no longer have to go into voluntary quarantine there, now French travellers are exempted from UK rules.

From Saturday the Foreign Office warning against all but essential travel will be lifted; a great relief to the many British nationals currently travelling throughout Europe who have travel insurance policies and have been deeply concerned that these are invalidated by the advice not to travel.

There is currently disagreement within the British government about the situation regarding the devolved nations, so the list published today will only apply to those returning to ENGLAND.

Last night the Department for Transport is reported to have said that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland will be establishing their own rules and travellers should follow the laws and guidance established by their respective governments, but at the moment there is no clarification as to how that will affect someone who for example, lives in Wales, but lands in Bristol.

Hopefully this will all be resolved before the 10th when the new rules are applied.

There has been considerable disagreement between Westminster and the Scottish government, who were blamed for delays in the announcement regarding travel bridges, although in all fairness, discussions with foreign nations have been “difficult” as some countries, such as Portugal and Greece have been unwilling to establish the safe air bridges due to the high numbers of cases in the UK and there have been disagreements amongst various government departments regarding how the rules will be implemented and operated.

According to the BBC; Scottish Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf said he had been given 30 minutes to look at a list of countries under consideration for "air bridges" before being asked to make a decision on Wednesday night.

He told BBC Radio's Good Morning Scotland programme the Scottish government wanted to take a "four nations" approach and he asked for more time consider the issue.

"It just makes sense for the devolved administration... that we take our time to look at the public health impact this will possibly have on our own country and come to a quick and swift decision, which is what we're quite keen to do.

"And therefore it's quite disappointing that we haven't been given the courtesy of working together on that four nations approach."

Mr Yousaf said the prevalence point - the estimated proportion of the population currently infectious - of the virus in Scotland was 0.037 while in England it was "five times higher".

"There's some countries that may not be as high-risk as England or a lower risk than England but, clearly, coming into Scotland, if they are a higher risk - France, Italy, Spain all have a higher prevalence point than Scotland does - then clearly that's going to have a different potential impact in Scotland than it does in England," he added.

The whole scheme has caused significant friction between the Government and the travel industry, and the words “flawed” and “farsical” have been liberally used to describe the scheme which has now apparently floundered in a quagmire of propaganda caused by the pre-emptive announcement of an ill-considered initiative.

English travellers, however, will be relieved that the indecision and waffling has finally stopped and plans can be made for the summer…..providing that case numbers remain under control and airlines honour their scheduled flights programmes.

And those from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland wait for conditions to be confirmed.

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