Holiday chaos as Portugal removed from UK’s quarantine-free travel green list

  • Date: 04-Jun-2021
  • Source: Gulf Today
  • Sector:Transport
  • Country:Egypt
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Holiday chaos as Portugal removed from UK’s quarantine-free travel green list

Holiday chaos as Portugal removed from UK's quarantine-free travel green list

5 hours ago

People have their tickets checked while queuing for the West End show 'The Show Must Go On' at the Palace Theatre, in London on Thursday. Reuters

Britain said on Thursday that it is removing Portugal from its list of COVID-safe travel destinations, meaning thousands of UK residents currently on vacation there face the prospect of 10 days' quarantine on return.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the "difficult decision“ was prompted by rising infection rates in Portugal and worries about new strains of the virus that could prove resistant to vaccines.

Passengers push their luggage on arrival in Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. AFP

Shapps said: "There's a sort of Nepal mutation of the so-called Indian variant which has been detected and we just don't know the potential for that to be a vaccine-defeating mutation and simply don't want to take the risk as we come up to June 21“ “” the date the UK government hopes to lift remaining coronavirus restrictions.

The change will take effect at 4am on Tuesday. It joins other European Union countries on the list, with no nations added to the green section.

Meanwhile seven countries, including Egypt and Sri