UK removes Turkey from COVID-19 travel red list

LONDON

The U.K. on Sept. 17 removed Turkey from its red coronavirus travel list, allowing travel without compulsory hotel quarantine on arrival, and so easing travel and tourism between the two countries.

With the latest update, Britain’s traffic light system is now scraped and a simpler, “go” and “don’t go” system was introduced.

Starting on Wednesday, Sept. 22, arrivals from Turkey will no longer need to self-isolate in a designated hotel, potentially saving them thousands of pounds.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps on Friday afternoon said more countries were taken off the red list.

“EIGHT countries and territories will come off the red list from Weds 22 Sept at 4am, incl. TURKEY, PAKISTAN and MALDIVES,” Shapps said on Twitter.

“We’ll also be introducing a new simplified system for international travel from Mon 4 Oct replacing the current approach with a single red list and simplified measures for the rest of the world - striking the right balance to manage the public health risk as No.1 priority,” he added.

The minister said those who are fully vaccinated will not have to test before arriving in England from a country that is not on the red list.

“Mon 4 Oct, if you’re fully vax you won’t need a pre-departure test before arrival into England from a non-red country and from later in Oct, will be able to replace the day 2 PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow,” he added.

Turkey has been on the red list since May.