Author: Sophie Drew
People returning to the UK from Red List countries face quarantine at Government-selected hotels.
India has been added to the “Red List” of countries that people in the UK cannot travel to.
The moves comes after cases of coronavirus began to soar in India – with Health Secretary Matt Hancock confirming the move in the House of Commons today.
The Prime Minister has cancelled his upcoming trip to the South Asian country following the rise in cases.
This means that people travelling from Heathrow, or any other airport, will not be able to travel to India.
The change comes into force at 4am on Friday, meaning Britons returning after that point will be forced to quarantine in a hotel for 10 days. Anyone who is not a UK or Irish resident or a British citizen will be banned from entering the country if they have been in India in the previous 10 days.
Going on holiday abroad is currently illegal in England, but things could reopen via the new traffic light system from May 17.
If you have been to India for work, then you may still be able to re-enter the UK, but you will have to quarantine for ten days and take two coronavirus tests.
Pakistan, Kenya, Bangladesh and Philippines were recently added to the list.
If you have arrived from India in the last ten days then you must isolate in the place where you’re staying, and take a Covid-19 test on days 2 and 8 of your isolation.
For many, hopes of a summer holiday abroad were dashed when a report was released showing only 8 countries may be placed on the ‘green list’ as airports like Heathrow return to their usual service.
This means the majority of countries will require a quarantine period on return to the UK – and countries like India will be banned all together.
- Angola
- Argentina
- Bangladesh
- Bolivia
- Botswana
- Brazil
- Burundi
- Cape Verde
- Chile
- Colombia
- Democratic Republic of the Congo
- Ecuador
- Eswatini
- Ethiopia
- French Guiana
- Guyana
- India
- Kenya
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Oman
- Pakistan
- Panama
- Paraguay
- Peru
- Philippines
- Qatar
- Rwanda
- Seychelles
- Somalia
- South Africa
- Suriname
- Tanzania
- United Arab Emirates (UAE)
- Uruguay
- Venezuela
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe