A group of eight countries have made the jump from England’s ‘no-go’ red list, meaning people will be able to travel there without having to quarantine in a hotel on their return to the UK.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps tore up the country’s traffic-light system today. In an effort to make travel easier, countries will simply be divided into two categories of red and ‘rest of world’, rather than red, amber and green.

Among several other changes, Turkey, Pakistan, the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Oman, Bangladesh, Kenya and Egypt will be removed from the red list restrictions from 4am on September 22.

Previously, people coming into England from these places had to pay for a PCR test before entering the country, fork out thousands to spend 10 days in hotel quarantine and take two more PCR tests.

The existing travel traffic light system remains in place until October 4. From then, people won’t need a pre-departure test before arrival into England from a non-red country.

From the end of October, fully vaccinated UK passengers will be able to replace their day 2 PCR test with a cheaper lateral flow test. The government said they aim to have this in place for when people return from half-term breaks.

The head of the Southern Africa Tourism Services Association (SATSA) David Frost called the Government’s decision a ‘kick in the teeth’.

He said: ‘Turkey’s case rate is triple South Africa’s and rising fast, while Pakistan’s testing and sequencing rates are a fraction of ours, there is no consistency. The UK government needs to urgently reconsider this classification to avoid irreparable harm to a relationship with a key ally and trading partner.’

However coronavirus data analyst Tim White previously told The Guardian: ‘The data firmly support Turkey being removed, as it has no threat of variants and a lot of genomic sequencing.’

The Government will review

The UK Government recognises the following public health bodies

• Countries in Europe
• UK vaccine programme overseas
• Australia
• Antigua
• Barbuda
• Barbados
• Bahrain
• Brunei
• Canada
• Dominica
• Israel
• Japan
• Kuwait
• Malaysia
• New Zealand
• Qatar
• Saudi Arabia
• Singapore
• South Korea
• Taiwan
• US

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