Green, Amber and Red lists updated: Government announces changes from 19th July

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• VKZ says:

  14 Jul14 July 21:14

  I have been double vaccinated with the Pfizer jabs in the US (in May) but the NHS records are not updated due to my (very slow) GP service who don’t know the process. Will the vaccine card from the US showing I am double jabbed be okay while returning from Amber list?

  • Rob says:

    14 Jul14 July 22:11

    No. AIUI we are not recognising overseas jabs.

    • aceman says:

      14 Jul14 July 23:06

      wait, im in exactly the same position and was waiting until after July 19th…
      So this also means US citizens wouldnt want to come to the uk on holiday after july 19th? Does it show that anywhere?

      • Anna says:

        14 Jul14 July 23:09

        All the announcements about the removal of quarantine requirements for people vaccinated by the NHS …

      • Danny says:

        15 Jul15 July 04:08

        https://www.gov.uk/guidance/red-amber-and-green-list-rules-for-entering-england#amber-list says as long as you “have been fully vaccinated under the UK vaccination programme”

      • Tracey says:

        15 Jul15 July 09:11

        Go to a nice hotel for the first 5 days of your holiday, you should be able to use the hotel gardens and have room service. Make an outing of your day 2 test (allowed). Do test to release on day 5 and hopefully you will be free to go.

  • The Streets says:

    14 Jul14 July 22:57

    My misses is in a similar position having had it in Hong Kong but doesn’t sound hopeful

  • aa123 says:

    14 Jul14 July 23:25

    Would this not be classed as discrimination?
    Same vaccine, coming from the same factory, if you get it in the UK you are free to skip quarantine and tests. If you get it abroad you have to quarantine and get tested.
    And government insists their decisions are backed by science…

    • Andrew says:

      15 Jul15 July 09:10

      The problem isn’t about not trusting vaccines given abroad, it’s to do with being able to easily verify that a person from any random country has actually had what they say they have and hasn’t just knocked up an official looking certificate in Photoshop.

      I’m sure reciprocal trust agreements will slowly be introduced but you have to remember that we’re still in the very early days of travel reopening.

      • aa123 says:

        15 Jul15 July 11:42

        If most EU countries presumably have the means to verify NHS travel pass, don’t see why the UK cannot verify EU covid certificates

      • Mike says:

        15 Jul15 July 17:20

        Precisely to prevent someone doctoring someone else’s certificate as their own is why all covid passes (NHS app, EU green certificate, etc.) come with a QR code that, when scanned, takes you to a government verification site. That’s the basis (and the whole point) of having reciprocal recognition agreements with other countries.

        No, the issue is not that the certificate may have been forged (as I say, the QR code deals with that) but entering into the necessary agreements with those other countries, which takes an inordinate amount of time.

  • Anon says:

    16 Jul16 July 15:15

    If you have some proof of vaccination, I seriously doubt the border force is going to force you to quarantine. If they were applying the rules in the most pedantic, jobsworth way possible then maybe but given that many of these COVID rules are about as illegal as cycling on the pavement, I’m sure you’ll be fine.

• Peter says:

  14 Jul14 July 23:01

  How the hell is Turkey and the UAE still on the red list? On Sunday night I can go to a club where hardly anyone is vaccinated and nobody is wearing a mask, but if I go to Turkey I become such a danger to society that I need to be locked up in a hotel?
  Was gonna do a family holiday in Turkey with my parents flying from Germany. Turkey is on Germany’s green list!
  So far they haven’t removed ANY country from the red list ever since it was introduced!

  • Louie says:

    14 Jul14 July 23:47

    I don’t think anyone believes logic or sense has anything to do with it any longer.

    • Louie says:

      15 Jul15 July 01:00

      Or even “science”.

  • 1ATL says:

    15 Jul15 July 02:32

    I think it’s more to do with those countries being transportation hubs to/from other countries that are on the red list. People with dual nationality and wanting to bypass the hotel quarantine in the UK could manage it quite easily and therefore cause additional waves quite quickly. That’s my understanding anyway.

  • JP-MCO says:

    15 Jul15 July 08:09

    It has nothing to do with science whatsoever just like the current restrictions have nothing to do with infection control. It’s fine for 60,000 people to cram into Wembley stadium without masks or social distancing or Centre Court in Wimbledon or come from red or amber list countries if they’re VIPs but you can’t have a school sports day for parents to attend. It’s inconsistencies like this that make people ignore restrictions and ultimately it will be these things that cause people to ignore rules on travel quarantine too. If it really was scientific or about infection control there would be no exemptions and no inconsistencies. To be abundantly clear I’m not an advocate of ignoring the laws enacted by any Government but the UK’s policies on COVID are so ridiculous right now that it’s no wonder people don’t listen to a word they say anymore.

  • Tracey says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:13

    Clubbing you would only pick up variants that are already in the UK. Fly in from a hub airport and you could bring with you any new variant!

    • JP-MCO says:

      15 Jul15 July 09:52

      Possibly but that assumption is predicated on the idea that all variants are somehow more harmful than the endemic strain. The UK isn’t a special case when it comes to handling the pandemic and yet the overwhelming majority of our policies seem diametrically opposite to those employed by Governments around the world. You have to ask the question why the US Government (and CDC) don’t require fully vaccinated US citizens to quarantine when they re-enter the country or why they don’t have a chaotic traffic light system like the UK? Nor do they require overpriced testing packages. Also, I don’t subscribe to the theory that you’re more likely to pick up an infection in a country with lower infection rates just because you’re on holiday. It is nonsensical and not at all grounded in science. I’m all for turning off travel to a country when infection is spiralling out of control but none of the recent additions meet that criteria. They promised a system that was better than last year but if anything it’s worse. Allowing fully vaccinated individuals to sidestep quarantine from Amber list countries is a mere sticking plaster – there will be a great hesitancy to use it for fear of a shift to the red list for literally no reason. If they carry on as they’re going our travel sector will be dead within the next 6 months.

      • Andrew says:

        15 Jul15 July 11:50

        Travel restrictions, and restrictions in general, are in place because they’re popular. That’s not entirely unreasonable given the fearful headlines we’ve been fed over the last 16 months. The government sending the message “things are really dangerous but we’re keeping you safe” has lead to unprecedented levels of support for a government who’ve been in power this long. Just look at the recent outcry over trying to move to a “it’s time for you to take care of yourselves” message.

  • ADS says:

    15 Jul15 July 12:46

    “So far they haven’t removed ANY country from the red list ever since it was introduced!”

    Mauritius was removed

    And to be fair, England’s red list is actually smaller than some other countries – less on, less to come off.

    • Anon says:

      16 Jul16 July 15:23

      Portugal has gone from amber to red to amber then green then amber again.

• Sam says:

  15 Jul15 July 00:09

  Non-Hong Kong residents are not permitted to enter Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong residents (including citizens) who have stayed in the UK for more than two hours in the last 21 days are not admitted entries to Hong Kong. All passenger flights from the UK to Hong Kong are currently suspended until further notice. Yet we have another 40k new case in one single day today. Bravo.

  • Lord Doncaster says:

    15 Jul15 July 01:47

    What’s your point?

    • 1ATL says:

      15 Jul15 July 02:34

      That adding HK to the green list is effectively a pointless exercise as those who can benefit from this revelation can probably be counted on one hand.

      • roberto says:

        15 Jul15 July 03:07

        A potential 3,000,000 HK citizens with British passports may disagree….

        • 1ATL says:

          15 Jul15 July 03:52

          +1

          I was thinking about this from a UK citizens perspective. You are absolutely correct and this and it goes hand in hand with the UK Government stance on on providing UK subject passport holders settled route towards UK citizenship. Although out of a potential 2.9 million eligible to pursue this opportunity over the next 5yrs the anticipated figure is anticipated to be closer to 300,000.

  • John says:

    15 Jul15 July 04:17

    Not strictly true, tourists are allowed from Australia and New Zealand (but Australian citizens are not allowed to go on holiday from Australia, unless they are moving country for more than 3 months so could in theory stop in HK – but still need to hotel quarantine for 7 days even if vaccinated)

• David A says:

  15 Jul15 July 03:16

  We’re currently in the US. I’m British; my wife is American. I’m double-vaxxed in the UK (AZ) and can enter without quarantine after showing my NHS app, but she must endure (again) 10 days isolation, tests, etc etc etc because she was double-vaxxed in the US (Pfizer).
  Totally incomprehensible, pathetic policy.

  • N says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:19

    this actually raises my blood pressure slightly! doesn’t make any sense, but i guess these are all being used as deterrents to come to the UK…

• N says:

  15 Jul15 July 09:18

  thanks for this Rob – however when you say that the pre-departure tests can be lateral flow, I’m not sure that is the case. if you are returning to the UK at the end of your holiday, the gov.uk advice seems to say that you need to be able to get a test from a private provider and show evidence of a negative test in the form of a printed document or text message
  i don’t think you can get this with a lateral flow test?

  • Rob says:

    15 Jul15 July 09:49

    Are Qured lateral flow? I tend to use the phrase lateral flow to describe anything which is not PCR.

  • Yvo says:

    15 Jul15 July 10:00

    I’m returning from Ibiza on Monday and my understanding is a local test is fine, we (UK) do accept LF with a certificate and they are €30 here.

    • Yvo says:

      15 Jul15 July 10:02

      “Type of test
      You must make sure that the test provider you choose can meet the standards for pre-departure testing.

      The test must meet performance standards of ≥97% specificity, ≥80% sensitivity at viral loads above 100,000 copies/ml.

      This could include tests such as:

      a nucleic acid test, including a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test or derivative technologies, including loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) tests
      an antigen test, such as a test from a lateral flow device“

      • N says:

        15 Jul15 July 10:17

        that’s good. so it’s just a matter of getting a lateral flow test from a provider that can give a certificate. the NHS-provided tests won’t work. i’m sure the lateral flow ones are probably cheaper than some of the other ones though

    • 1ATL says:

      15 Jul15 July 19:11

      Just make sure the certificate is in English or one of the other permitted languages. As far as I’m aware Spanish isn’t one of them.

      • 1ATL says:

        15 Jul15 July 19:13

        Ignore – Spanish is one of the permitted languages.

        Information that the test result must include
        Your test result must be in either English, French or Spanish. Translations will not be accepted.

        You must provide the original test result notification. It must include the following information:

        your name, which should match the name on your travel documents
        your date of birth or age
        the result of the test
        the date the test sample was collected or received by the test provider
        the name of the test provider and their contact details
        confirmation of the device used for the test, or that the test was a PCR test

• Anon says:

  16 Jul16 July 15:28

  To those who have travelled, to what extent are all these travel bans, quarantines and certification requirements really being enforced and who’s doing the enforcing? Not only on arrival in the UK but everywhere?

  I went to Italy and while there were several forms and certificates that were needed, the border official didn’t seem interested in anything other than my passport. The airline checked that I had the forms although they didn’t really look at them.

  Are the airlines stopping people from flying? Are border officials turning people away or handing out fines?

• Christopher Clark says:

  19 Jul19 July 16:43

  Chris Why is Kenya on the red list of countries. I have very close friends and lived and worked there for five years.

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