Change comes into place on 4am on Saturday August

Travellers arriving in the UK fromBelgium, Andorra and the Bahamas will be forced to quarantine for 14 days after the countries were removed from the governments travel corridors list.

The Department for Transport said that data from the joint biodiversity centre and Public Health England indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases in the countries.

The change comes into place on 4am on Saturday August 8. Scotland has also withdrawn the countries from its list.

The Foreign & Commonwealth Office now advises against all but essential travel to Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas.

Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of #coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN. If you arrive in the UK after 0400 Saturday from these destinations, you will need to self-isolate for 14 days.

Belgium recoded more than 70,000 Covid-19 cases this week, meaning it has a rate of 27.8 new cases per 100,000 people. This is compared to the UKs 8.4.

Estonia, Latvia, Slovakia,Slovenia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines were added to the list on July 24, butSpainwas removed on July 25 andLuxembourgwas removed on July 31.

More: Get information on overseas travel in our travel advice sectionMore: Sign up to our Weekly Digest for an overview of travel news

The government is under increased pressure to implement a testing regime at borders amid the confusion caused by changes to thetravel corridors list.

In the wake of the Department for Transport removingSpainfrom its safe list and the change in FCO advice, which was subsequentlyextended toinclude the Canary and BalearicIslands, the chief executive of Heathrow has renewedcalls for testing.

As many of our customers have experienced, its difficult to plan a holiday that way, let alone run a business.Testing offers a way to safely open up traveland trade to some of the UKs biggest markets which currently remain closed, John Holland-Kaye told BBC Radio 4sTodayprogramme.

He said: The UK needs a passenger testing regime and fast, adding that without it, Britain is just playing a game of quarantine roulette.

Matt Hancock has said he hasabsolutely no regrets about the quickchange in advice on Spain and saidmore countries could be removed from the exemption list within days.

The health secretary said officials were looking all of the time at coronavirus cases in other countries.

See original here:

Belgium and the Bahamas off safe list - ABTA Magazine