Secretary of State for Transport (): This statement provides an
update on international travel.
From 4am on Monday 22 November, the Government will recognise
vaccines on the World Health Organization’s Emergency Use Listing
(WHO EUL) at our border.
In practice, this means that Sinovac, Sinopharm Beijing and
Covaxin will be added to our list of approved vaccines for
inbound travel, benefitting more fully vaccinated people from
countries around the world. The WHO Emergency Use Listing process
includes a review of quality, safety and efficacy data performed
by WHO experts, and many countries including the United States,
Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Iceland are already recognising
the WHO EUL vaccines. These vaccines are in addition to the
existing vaccines we recognise at the border, namely
Oxford/AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer BioNTech and Janssen (Johnson
and Johnson).
As such, from 4am on 22 November, travellers who have proof of
vaccination with a full course of these approved vaccines will be
treated the same as those fully vaccinated in the UK, and so will
not have to self-isolate on arrival or a take pre-departure test,
and only need to take a Lateral Flow Device (LFD) test
post-arrival (with confirmatory PCR if positive). This will
benefit passengers with proof of vaccination from the over 135
countries and territories in scope of the policy.
Further, all under-18s coming to England from non-red list
countries will be treated as fully vaccinated at the border and
will be exempt from self-isolation requirements on arrival, day 8
testing and pre-departure testing.
Whilst public health is a devolved matter, the Government works
closely with the devolved administrations on any changes to
international travel and aims to ensure a whole UK approach.
The Government continues to keep our measures under review and
will not hesitate to act if we perceive a risk to public health.
