- Italy, San Marino and Vatican City State removed from the travel corridor list this week
- Greek island of Crete added to list for England, having been assessed by the Joint Biosecurity Centre as posing a lower infection risk
- travellers urged to check the latest advice from the FCDO before travelling and will be required to fill in a passenger locator form before returning home
People arriving in England from Italy, San Marino and Vatican City State from 4am on Sunday 18 October will need to self-isolate for 2 weeks as the countries are removed from the travel corridor list.
Data has indicated the weekly cases and test positivity are increasing in Italy and so ministers have taken the decision to remove the destinations.
The Greek island of Crete has been added to the government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in confirmed cases of coronavirus.
From 4am on Sunday 18 October, passengers arriving in England from Crete will no longer need to self-isolate, provided they haven’t been in or transited through any other non-exempt countries in the 14 days preceding their arrival.
The JBC’s latest risk assessment for Crete indicates that the risks to UK public health from travellers returning from there has decreased to an acceptable level.
The Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Italy and San Marino. The island of Crete is now exempt from the FCDO’s global advisory against non-essential travel.
The government has made consistently clear it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including removing countries from the travel corridors list rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.
Covid-19 has profoundly changed the nature of international travel. Travellers should always check the latest advice from the FCDO to keep up to date with the latest information on the risks associated with travel to another country, as well as the entry rules and measures introduced by local authorities that may affect British travellers.
All travellers, including those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show a completed passenger locator form on arrival in the UK unless they fall into a small group of exemptions.
Penalties for those breaching the self-isolation rules when returning from non-exempt countries have increased from £1,000 for first offence up to £10,000 for subsequent offences, mirroring penalties for those breaching self-isolation following a positive COVID test or contact from Test & Trace.
