Greece and Turkey avoid UK quarantine list as their coronavirus cases are low enough, travel expert says
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TURKEY and Greece are "nowhere near" being added to the UK government’s quarantine list, according to a travel expert.
Both countries were initially feared to be the next to be added to the list after a significant jump in the number of daily coronavirus infections.
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However, the cumulative number of cases per 100,000 of the population over the course of seven days is still well below 20, believed to be the government benchmark for imposing quarantine restrictions.
Instead, Croatia was added to the list last night, with holidaymakers facing quarantine in the UK from 4am tomorrow, along with Austria.
Paul Charles, the spokesperson for the Quash Quarantine group told Sun Online Travel: “Turkey is nowhere near being added and nor is Greece, as Turkey currently has 10.6 cases per 100k and Greece has 14.1.
“So hopefully that is still good news for British consumers - because a lot of people have booked holidays to those two countries for the end of August and will be wondering if they are able to go.
“There are plenty of countries still open for holidaymakers, like Greece, Turkey, Italy, Germany and Cyprus.”
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It was initially feared that Portugal would be unlikely to be removed from the quarantine list this week as figures were still "slightly up".
In the last few days, the new daily cases have gone from 121 to 132 and then 214 cases yesterday.
Yet the country has worked hard to lower the number of daily coronavirus infections and it is now at 14.4 cases per 100k of the population - below the UK's limit of 20.
The government announced last night that Portugal is back on the UK safe list, meaning holidays can go ahead.
The Sun understands there are around 127,000 seats on flights from the UK to Portugal from now until the end of the month - which are now likely to get snapped up fast.
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However, flights have soared in price as Brits opt for a trip to the Algarve, with some going for as much as £1,000.
Last week, Sun Online Travel revealed that cheap holidays to Turkey are now costing tourists even less as the local currency plummets.
A couple of years ago £1 would buy 6.1 lira, but with today’s exchange rate it has risen to 9.56 lira - making the Mediterranean destination much cheaper.