UK to remove final seven countries from COVID-19 travel ‘red list’

LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will remove next week the last seven countries on its coronavirus “red list”, which currently requires newly arrived travellers from these destinations to spend 10 days in hotel quarantine, transport minister Grant Shapps said on Thursday.

The seven countries which will be removed from the list from Nov. 1 are Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Haiti, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. Britain’s chief medical officers ruled that they were no longer of concern.

Shapps said the change would be adopted by England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and that several hundred hotel rooms would be kept on standby in case authorities decided to put countries back on the red list.

He also said 30 more countries would be added to a list of nations whose coronavirus vaccinations are recognised by Britain, taking the total to more than 135 countries.