Is the Big Apple open for some festive retail therapy?

Simon Calder on transatlantic shopping, isolation for non-jabbed teens, and the changing quaranting rules

Macy’s is a major shopping attraction for visitors to New York (AP)

Q I want to go Christmas shopping in New York. Can I?

Rahul N

A Early December looks an excellent prospect for a trip to the US for people who qualify, following the news on Monday that the 18-month travel ban on arrivals from the UK will be lifted at some time in November.

Since March 2020, people “who were physically present within the UK during the 14-day period preceding their entry or attempted entry into the United States” have been banned, unless they are American or have right of residence in the US.

To travel to America once the ban is lifted, you must be fully vaccinated. There has been misplaced concern that US Food & Drug Administration has not yet approved Oxford AstraZeneca; that is irrelevant since a vaccine authorised for emergency use by the World Health Organisation (including Oxford-AstraZeneca, Janssen, Moderna and Pfizer) is sufficient.

You will need to get a test no more than three days before your flight. A cheap and rapid antigen (lateral flow) test is acceptable – no need to take a PCR. Alternatively, you could provide proof that you have recovered from Covid-19 in the past three months. The US Centres for Disease Control advises that you should have a second test between three and five days after arrival.

The Americans are also devising a passenger locator form of the kind that are now common across the world, so that health authorities can keep tabs on travellers.

In terms of flights, I suggest you hold off booking for now. Airlines will quickly ramp up flights once the exact timing is known, so you will have more choice and (hopefully) lower fares.

Finally, can I persuade you to consider a different location? I find both Boston and Chicago more fun for Christmas shopping than New York, with the added benefit that sales taxes in those two cities are much lower.

Under-18s are treated as fully vaccinated when returning from foreign holidays (iStock)

Q We have three grandchildren, aged 15, 14 and 12, wanting to go on holiday for the October half-term break to the Canary Islands with us.

Us adults have been double jabbed. As they have not been vaccinated, it’s not clear if they need to have a test before coming home. Also do they have to isolate when they come back?

Yvonne and Chris S

A How marvellous to be travelling to the Canary Islands in late October. Of all the possible locations for a half-term break, the Spanish archipelago – halfway from the UK to the equator – is my favourite, volcanic activity notwithstanding.

I am not surprised you are confused about the new travel rules that take effect in the coming month. A newspaper report on Sunday insisted: “Children aged 11 to 17 who are not fully vaccinated must still quarantine at home for up to 10 days on their return.”

Fortunately, I have established with the Department for Transport (DfT) that the report is mistaken. If they live in the UK, then they are treated as fully vaccinated.

The changes to international travel regulations for arrivals to the UK will therefore work in your favour. None of you need to take a “test to fly” before leaving for home – that requirement ends for vaccinated arrivals from 4 October.

You will all need a test on arrival back in the UK, which must be taken on the day you arrive or one of the two following days. This is the so-called (and misnamed) “day two” test. At present, it is required to be a PCR test, but the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, has said he wants that downgraded to a cheaper lateral flow test from the end of October.

There is no clarity about the exact date: the government simply says it is “aiming to have it in place for when people return from half-term breaks”.

So please do not book any tests for returning to the UK until much nearer the time, to minimise the chance that you pay for an unnecessarily expensive test.

Bangladesh will reopen to UK visitors this week (Getty/iStock)

Q If someone travels from Bangladesh to the UK on 26 September, will they need to quarantine in a hotel? My thinking is that they will have been in a country that was on the red list up to 22 September, even though its status then changed.

Mus R

A The UK’s absurdly extensive red list gets 12 per cent shorter from 4am on Wednesday 22 September, when eight countries are removed. The change of status for Bangladesh (as well as Pakistan and Sri Lanka) will enable many families to reconnect.

In terms of timing, the only rule that counts is: what is the status of your destination country at the moment you arrive back in the UK? If someone arrives from Bangladesh on a flight that touches down at 3.59am on 22 September, they will be liable to spend £2,285 for 11 nights in hotel quarantine. But if they arrive at 4.01am on 22 September, they will face no restrictions.

Assuming they are arriving in England rather than Scotland or Wales, they will not need a “test to fly” either before departure. A “day two” test will still be required after arrival. It must be booked and paid for in advance, and until “the end of October” must be a PCR test rather than a cheaper and faster lateral flow test.

For completeness, the other countries to leave the red list are the eastern Mediterranean nations of Egypt and Turkey, as well as winter favourites Kenya, the Maldives, Oman and Sri Lanka.

As mentioned, the UK is a complete outlier among European nations with its 54-member red list; Germany currently has zero countries on its red list. The UK government says the current lengthy high-risk register is “crucial in order to protect public health”.

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