People arriving in UK from France, the Netherlands, Monaco,
Malta, Turks & Caicos and Aruba from 04:00 Saturday 15
August will need to self-isolate for two weeks as the countries
are removed from the travel exemptions list.
The Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England have
indicated a significant change in COVID-19 risk in all six
destinations, leading to Ministers removing these from the
current list of travel corridors.
Data from France shows that over the past week (7th -13th
August) there has been a 66% increase in newly reported cases
and a 52% increase in weekly incidence rate per 100,000
population, indicating a sharp rise in COVID-19.
There has been a consistent increase in newly reported cases in
the Netherlands over the past 4 weeks, with a 52% increase in
newly reported cases between 7th and 13th August. Over the past
week, there has been a 273% increase in newly reported cases in
Turks & Caicos and 1,106% increase in newly reported cases
in Aruba. Malta has had a 105% increase in newly reported cases
over the past 7 days.
At the same time, The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)
has also updated its travel advice to advise against all but
essential travel to France, Monaco, the Netherlands, Malta,
Turks & Caicos and Aruba.
The Government has made consistently clear it will take
decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including
removing countries from the Travel Corridors list rapidly if
the public health risk of people returning from a particular
country without self-isolating becomes too high.
People currently in France, the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta,
Turks & Caicos and Aruba are encouraged to follow the local
rules and check the FCO travel advice pages on GOV.UK for
further information. The Government is urging employers to be
understanding of those returning from these destinations who
now will need to self-isolate and has invested over £9bn to
strengthen the welfare safety net, helping to ensure access for
those in need.
Government keeps travel advice and the exemptions list under
constant review, and the Joint Biosecurity Centre is closely
monitoring increases in reported cases in destinations
worldwide. People planning to travel overseas should be mindful
that unfortunately disruption is possible, in order to protect
public health, and the Government is prepared to remove
countries from the Travel Corridors list rapidly if the public
health risk of people returning from a particular country
without self-isolating becomes too high. Passengers should
therefore carefully consider their ability to self-isolate on
return before deciding to travel overseas in the event that
advice changes.
Travellers should always check the latest advice from the FCO,
given the potential for changing coronavirus infection rates to
affect both the advice about travelling to other countries and
rules about self-isolation on return. All travellers, including
those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show
a completed passenger locator form on arrival into the UK
unless they fall into a small group of exemptions, with failure
to do so resulting in a £100 fine.
