Travel in COVID-19 times: UK may waive quarantine for fully-vaccinated citizens, PM Boris Johnson indicates

The wide scale inoculation has led to demands that the government loosen up rules to help the battered travel industry make some recovery through people wanting to undertake overseas travel. (Image Source: Shutterstock)

The United Kingdom is set to put out fresh rules for foreign trips and give travellers more freedom, if they take both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

In a broadcast on June 24, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said citizens who have received both doses of the coronavirus vaccine will be given more freedom to travel, Bloomberg reported.

“The real opportunity we all have now is to open up travel through the double jab," Johnson said.

British officials are preparing new rules for foreign trips and Johnson indicated they may waive the 10 day quarantine period for returnees from “medium risk destinations”, provided they are fully vaccinated.

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UK’s Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is likely to announce the new rules and list of safe to travel countries soon. The immediate list may however not yet have the quarantine waiver, which is not expected to come into force until August, it added.

Over 60 percent of adults in the UK have received both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The wide scale inoculation has led to demands that the government loosen up rules to help the battered travel industry make some recovery through people wanting to undertake overseas travel.

Willie Walsh, the head of the International Air Transport Association trade group told the publication that for some airlines “another summer is lost”, adding that for airlines dependent on trans-Atlantic travel the situation is “much more difficult than others”.

He is not optimistic about the government doing “anything going forward”.

Travel to European destinations is also not at all clear. Italy has imposed a 5-day quarantine on UK travellers entering the country, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for “coordinated rules” from the EU for travellers from countries outside the bloc and especially those impacted by the Delta variant – which may include the UK.

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