Red list countries: Which destinations are banned from travel and when will it be scrapped?
THE UK's red list for travel is set to scrapped with all 11 nations removed.
It means mandatory hotel quarantining on return to the UK is also being ditched - but when do the new rules come into force?
Which countries are on the red list?
There are 11 countries on the list of destinations from which travellers have to fork out £2,285 for hotel quarantine on their return to Britain.
The latest, Nigeria, was added in response to the rapidly spreading Covid variant Omicron, first identified in South Africa.
It joined 10 other nations, including:
- Angola
- Botswana
- Eswatini
- Lesotho
- Malawi
- Mozambique
- Namibia
- Nigeria
- South Africa
- Zambia
- Zimbabwe
Will I have to quarantine coming back from the red list countries?
The hotel quarantine rules are still in place for anyone returning from a country on the red list.
These travellers must prebook a stay at a government-mandated hotel, where they must stay for 10 days at a cost of £2,285 per person.
An additional guest pays £1,430, while kids cost £325.
When will the red list be scrapped?
The traffic light system was essentially scrapped earlier this month, but the red list procedures remained in place as a precaution.
However, the system is officially being given the chop from December 15.
Health Secretary Sajid Javid confirmed the move to MPs on December 14 insisting that now there was community transmission, it no longer made sense.
Pre-departure tests will still be required before vaccinated Brits can get on a plane, and they must be tested again when they get back on or before day two.
They then must isolate until they get a negative result back.
Testing for all arrivals will stay until at least the new year, pushing up the price of Christmas for millions of people hoping to see friends and family.
However, quarantines will be replaced with testing for the fully vaccinated, while the unjabbed will be ordered to stay inside their homes instead of hotels.
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The latest red list countries were added following the discovery of the new Omicron Covid strain, due to fears it could threaten the UK's vaccine success.
The strain is behind an explosion of new cases in South Africa, with some regions seeing a six-fold rise in infections in a matter of days.
There are concerns that the new variant is considerably more transmissible than the Delta strain and that the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective.
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Government scientists are spooked by the strain, saying their main worry is the virus spike protein is “dramatically different” to the original Covid virus.
It means the vaccines and blockbuster new drugs will struggle to neutralise it – with optimistic estimates it will reduce efficacy by around a third.