LONDON (AP) — Britain said Thursday that it’s removing Portugal from its list of COVID-safe travel destinations, meaning thousands of U.K. residents currently on vacation there face the prospect of 10 days’ quarantine on returnUK drops Portugal from its safe travel Portugal faraway from green travel list
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Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the “difficult decision” was prompted by rising infection rates in Portugal and worries about new versions of the coronavirus that would prove immune to vaccines. He said a mutation of the delta variant first identified in India was causing particular concern.
He said “there’s a kind of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant which has been detected and that we just don’t know the potential for that to be a vaccine-defeating mutation and easily don’t want to require the danger as we come up to June 21” — the date the U.K. government hopes to lift remaining coronavirus restrictions.
The change will become at 4 a.m. (0300GMT) on Tuesday. Territories including Iceland, Israel and therefore the Falkland Islands remain on the U.K. green list
Also starting Tuesday, Britain is adding seven countries — Afghanistan, Bahrain, Costa Rica , Egypt, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Trinidad and Tobago — to its “red list” of places with severe COVID-19 outbreaks. about essential visit red list countries is barred, and U.K. residents coming back from any of them must spend 10 days during a government-approved quarantine hotel.
The U.K. has recorded almost 128,000 coronavirus deaths, the very best toll in Europe. A mass vaccination campaign that started in December has given two doses of vaccine to quite half the adult population and brought new infections and deaths down sharply.
But case numbers are once more rising because the more transmissible delta variant spreads across the U.K.
Public Health England said that strain was now dominant within the U.K, displacing a variant first identified last year in southeast England and dubbed alpha by the planet Health Organization. The agency said early evidence suggests there could also be an increased risk of hospital admission from the delta variant.
Portugal may be a major destination for sun-seeking Britons, and was the sole large tourism destination on the U.K. government’s “green list,” announced last month, of places which will be visited without the necessity to self-isolate on return.
Tourism, by mainly British visitors, may be a mainstay of the southern European country’s economy, accounting for around 15% of annual gross domestic product.
Portugal’s foreign ministry said it “can’t understand the logic” behind British decision.
“Portugal is constant its easing of its lockdown, prudently and gradually, with clear rules for the security of these who reside here or visit us,” it said during a tweet.
The travel industry reacted with dismay to the U.K. announcement.
“Ministers spent last month hailing the restart of international travel, only to shut it down three weeks later, about guaranteeing another lost summer for the travel sector,” Heathrow Airport chief executive John Holland-Kaye said.
Andrew Flintham, director of travel company TUI UK, said moving Portugal off the green list “will do untold damage to customer confidence.”
“We were reassured that a green watch list would be created and a week’s notice would tend so travelers wouldn’t need to rush back home,” he said. “They have failed on this promise.”
Along with the nations designated red or green, British government has classified dozens of “amber list” countries, including the us . Travelers from amber countries must complete a 10-day quarantine reception .
