When will the UK accept vaccinated travellers from outside its recognised list?

Simon Calder answers your questions on self-isolation and the end of blanket travel bans

(PA)

When will the UK accept vaccinated travellers from my country?

Q Any updates about the UK accepting vaccines administered outside of the UK/US/European Union? I’m planning a visit to the UK from my home in Kuwait at the end of September. Even though Kuwait’s numbers are good, I don’t expect it to be added to the “green list” by then. So I’m more hopeful about getting in quarantine-free as a result of my vaccination status.

Malj

A Last month ministers finally agreed to remove the need for self-isolation for fully vaccinated travellers from “amber list” countries to the UK. But as so often during the coronavirus pandemic, there was a big “but…”. The transport secretary, Grant Shapps, said it applied only to “UK residents who are fully vaccinated through the UK vaccine rollout”. In other words: only jabs administered by the NHS were considered sufficient.

Later that month, vaccinations given in the European Union and US were also recognised. “We’ve taken great strides on our journey to reopen international travel,” Mr Shapps insisted – even though the failure to accept jabs administered in Australia, Canada or, in your case, Kuwait, makes the UK a complete outlier.

I predict the British government will very soon have to reverse its decision to reject properly certified evidence of entirely valid vaccinations carried out abroad. While the UK remains in a category of its own, many thousands of low-risk vaccinated people coming from medium-risk locations are obliged to self-isolate at great inconvenience. The decision is also adding to the destruction of the inbound UK tourism industry.

My guess is that early in September, when ministers return to the office, someone will finally notice the immense damage that is being caused, and perhaps suggest that this apparently arbitrary policy is reversed.

When will the blanket ban on South America end?

Q When do you think the blanket ban on South America and lower Central America will end? Given vaccine rates and dropping cases it seems nonsensical to continue to punish an entire continent.

Trying to travel 101

A “Nonsensical”? According to the transport secretary, Grant Shapps, all decisions on which countries should be on the “red list” of high-risk nations – requiring arrivals to go into 11 nights of hotel quarantine at a cost, for a solo traveller, of £2,285 – are down to science.

“There’s no circumstance in which there is not a scientific basis, Mr Shapps said.

Officials at the Joint Biosecurity Centre (JBC), which is part of the Department of Health, analyse the data and make recommendations to ministers – who, we are led to believe, merely rubber-stamp the JBC’s views.

So the reason that almost all of Latin America is on the red list is presumably because the JBC knows of variants of concern or shortcomings on data that go beyond the evidence available to the public. That is the only way there is a justification for consigning an entire continent to the no-go list, when some nations within it – for example Chile and Peru – appear to be extremely low risk. Chile yesterday had one-17th of the UK’s infection rate, according to Our World in Data, while Peru had one-50th.

Not everyone agrees that science is the sole concern of the government. The senior Conservative MP, Huw Merriman, who is also chair of the Transport Select Committee, told an event organised by Abta, the travel association, that government, Labour and the SNP are engaged in a “political arms race to the bottom” over restrictions on international travel.

Mr Merriman is asking the JBC to provide more information about its recommendations – not merely for changing advice, such as adding Montenegro to the red list, but for keeping countries where they are.

As the clamour grows for transparency in decision-making, I think it will be harder to justify maintaining blanket bans on regions such as Latin America and southern and eastern Africa, and that restrictions will start to fall away.

As Montenegro turns red, how can I avoid quarantine?

Q I am in Montenegro, which has just been added to the “red list”. Does it count as a red country on my history as of Monday? I would really appreciate it if you could please clarify this.

Beatrix

A It seems a perfectly reasonable argument: that you have spent the past 10 days only in countries that, at the time when you were there, were on the UK government’s medium-risk “amber list”. If you have been fully vaccinated in the UK or the EU, that means there is no need to self-isolate on your return.

But I am afraid what counts is the status of Montenegro at the moment you enter the UK. The question effectively being asked is: “In the previous 10 days have you spent any time in a country that is, at this moment, on the red list?” If this is the case then you must pay £2,285 (or, if there are two of you, £1,858 each) for 11 nights in hotel quarantine, including three meals a day and two PCR tests.

I imagine you will be keen to avoid this. If you are able to spend more, you could enjoy an extended holiday of 10 full days in either Albania or Croatia (on the “green watchlist”) in order to “launder” your Montenegrin status.

Email your questions to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder