Ministers have performed a U-turn on the Balearic Islands by removing the Spanish holiday destination from the UK’s quarantine-free “green list” after only two weeks, in a move which will force holidaymakers to cancel plans or self-isolate for up to 10 days upon return.
However, summer holidays to budget holiday destination Bulgaria looked more likely after it was upgraded to the green list alongside Hong Kong. Croatia and Taiwan will be placed on the green watchlist – designed to give people some notice a country might be downgraded.
The popular holiday destinations of Ibiza, Mallorca, Menorca and Formentera as well as all the British Virgin Islands will be downgraded to the amber list in England from 4am on Monday 19 July.
That is the same date from which people returning from amber list countries who have received two Covid vaccines by the NHS no longer need to isolate, which will spare older tourists from the quarantine rules – so long as they get a negative test result within two days of landing.
But everybody who has not received both doses – likely to be young people – will have to stay at home for up to 10 days or be released after day five using the “test to release” system.
Four destinations – Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sierra Leone – are moving on to the red list, meaning travel for all apart from British residents and nationals is banned. France escaped a surprise addition to the red list too, the Guardian understands. Ministers gathered to discuss a recommendation to downgrade it due to concerns about variant cases, but decided against the action, given the significant ramifications it would have.
As health is a devolved matter, quarantine policies are decided by the government of each of the four nations.
The Welsh first minister, Mark Drakeford, confirmed the same changes to the traffic light system and said moving places to the amber list that had only been on the green list for a matter of weeks “shows how difficult it will be to plan ahead this summer”. He also said he regretted the UK government’s decision to exempt double-vaccinated amber list arrivals from quarantine but that it was impractical not to follow suit – so the same policy would apply from Monday.
Scotland and Northern Ireland are likely to follow the same changes to their traffic light systems, but have yet to formally make an announcement.
Summary of changes in England
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Green: Bulgaria, Croatia, Hong Kong
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Green watchlist: Croatia, Taiwan
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Amber: Balearic Islands, the British Virgin Islands
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Red: Cuba, Indonesia, Myanmar, Sierra Leone
A source told the Guardian that because of the relaxation of rules for amber list arrivals, “the red list now is the main buffer”, meaning it is likely more people will be faced this summer with the hotel quarantine requirement and subsequent bill that starts at £1,750.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, said the changes were “guided by the latest data” and urged passengers to “check [the] latest travel advice before you travel as countries and territories may have extra requirements before you get there”.
Earlier, he sought to calm nerves about an AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute in India. It has been given to up to 5 million people in the UK but is not yet accepted by the European Medicines Agency, and so people who have had it may not qualify for the European Union digital vaccine passport scheme.
Following reports that two Britons who had the Serum-made jab were denied access to a flight they booked from Manchester airport to Malta, Shapps said he had successfully lobbied the Maltese government to amend its travel advice to let anyone who had been given an AstraZeneca jab into the country “without being turned away”.
He said the UK’s medicines regulator had “been very clear that it doesn’t matter whether the AstraZeneca you have is made here or the Serum Institute in India, it is absolutely the same product, it provides exactly the same levels of protection from the virus”.
Luke Evans, a Tory MP who has been working in the NHS helping to vaccinate people, said at the start of July he had one of the vaccines produced by Serum himself and had vaccinated “many people” with it.
He urged the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, to explain how he planned to resolve the problem and said he hoped it was “purely a bureaucratic issue”, to which he was told that “all doses used in the UK have been subject to very rigorous safety and quality checks, including individual batch testing and physical site inspections”.
Shapps was accused of ignoring continuous calls to publish the country-by-country data that informs changes to the traffic light system.
Jim McMahon, the shadow transport secretary, said: “People are booking holidays in good faith and now face the prospect of losing out because ministers refuse to be straight with the public.”
