Covid: Balearic Islands added to amber travel list
The Balearic Islands will be moved onto the government’s amber travel list on Monday over fears that Covid cases are rising rapidly in the region.
Ibiza, Majorca, Menorca and Formentera will be added to the list at 04.00 BST on Monday, two weeks after the group of islands was moved onto the green watch list.
The move currently only applies to England, but other UK countries are expected to follow.
Under 18 year-olds and those who have not had two doses of a Covid vaccine will have to quarantine on returning from an amber list country from Monday. Those double jabbed and under-18s in England, Scotland and Wales will not have to self-isolate from Monday.
The British Virgin Islands are also to be added to the amber list, while Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sierra Leone will move to the red list.
Hong Kong and Bulgaria have been moved to the green list. Croatia and Taiwan have been put on government’s green watch list.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps told reporters that case loads in the Balearic Islands had doubled since the region was placed on the green travel list, which prompted the government to act.
“We’re not in control of this virus, particularly in how it affects other counties, their levels of vaccinations, their level of genomic sequencing, their testing regimes” he added.
On Monday, when England’s remaining Covid restrictions will end, the guidance urging people not to travel to amber list countries will be scrapped.
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