England’s quarantine scrapped for arrivals from 50 countries
إنجلترا تعفي القادمين من 50 دولة من إجراءات العزل المنزلي
People arriving in England from more than 50 countries including France, Spain, Germany and Italy will no longer need to quarantine from 10 July, the Department for Transport has confirmed.
A full list of exempt countries posing “a reduced risk” from coronavirus will be published later.
Most travellers to the UK currently have to self-isolate for two weeks.
Scotland and Wales are yet to decide whether to ease travel restrictions and described the changes as “shambolic”.
Quarantine regulations also remain in place in Northern Ireland for people arriving from outside the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
England’s quarantine restrictions only came into force in early June, in a bid to stop coronavirus entering the country at a time when UK infections were falling.
The new exemptions mean people arriving from selected countries will be able to enter England without needing to self-isolate, unless they have been in or travelled through non-exempt countries in the preceding 14 days.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said finalising the list of countries had been delayed – after scrapping the quarantine was announced last week – in the hope that the four UK nations could reach a joint decision.
He said there was “still an opportunity” for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland to co-ordinate and therefore make the changes more simple.
But Scottish ministers have complained of being pushed to make decisions too quickly. First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said: “We can’t allow ourselves to be dragged along in the wake of another government’s – to be quite frank about it – shambolic decision-making process.”
First Minister of Wales Mark Drakeford agreed the UK government’s approach had been “utterly shambolic”.
However, he added it was likely the Welsh government would impose the same measures as in England, provided the chief medical officer for Wales gave approval.
Mr Shapps told the BBC countries on the list would be labelled as either amber or green, in line with a traffic-light system based on their prevalence of coronavirus:
“Green” countries, such as New Zealand, have “very low” levels of coronavirus and will therefore have restrictions for UK arrivals
“Amber” countries – including France, Germany, Italy and Spain – will have “reciprocal arrangements” in place, meaning travellers from the UK will not have to quarantine on arrival
Restrictions will remain in place for “red” countries, including the US
Mr Shapps said Greece would not be on the amber list to begin with, because it was currently not allowing flights from the UK.
Countries that will be either on the green or amber list include some of the UK’s overseas territories such as Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, Mr Shapps said, as well as smaller states such as the Vatican.
Ministers have been under pressure to ease quarantine measures because of the impact on the travel industry.
The Department for Transport said a risk assessment had been conducted considering factors such as the prevalence of the virus, the numbers of new cases and potential trajectory of the disease in each country.
The list of exemptions would be kept “under constant review”, so that if the health risks increased, self-isolation measures could be re-introduced, the DfT added.
Mr Shapps said people who were currently quarantining after returning from one of the green or amber countries could stop doing so on 10 July.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office will set out exemptions for a number of destinations from its current advice against non-essential international travel, which has been in place since 17 March.
العرب- مواقع إلكترونية:
تصدر المملكة المتحدة في وقت لاحق من اليوم الجمعة، قائمتها الخاصة بالدول المستثناة من إجراءات العزل الصحي لدى قدوم مسافرين منها إلى الأراضي البريطانية.
وقال وزير النقل البريطاني غرانت شابس إن هناك أكثر من 50 دولة، بينها وجهات رئيسية مثل فرنسا وألمانيا وإيطاليا وإسبانيا، تستفيد من هذا الامتياز اعتبارا من 10 يوليو الحالي.
وأوضح في مقابلة مع “بي بي سي” أن القادمين لبريطانيا من تلك الدول غير مضطرين للدخول في الحجر الصحي وعزل أنفسهم فترة الـ 14 يوما الموصي بها مع البدء تدريجيا في تخفيف القيود على حركة السفر الدولية في ظل استمرار أزمة وباء كورونا.
وأضاف شابس أنه ورغم أن النشرة لا تتضمن وجوب المعاملة بالمثل، إلا أن معظم البلدان المدرجة في القائمة ستعفي بدورها القادمين من المملكة المتحدة من تدابير العزل لدى الوصول، ما عدا الدول التي نجحت في الهبوط بمستويات العدوى إلى معدلات منخفضة جدًا، على غرار نيوزيلندا.
المصدر: alarab
