People arriving in the UK from Uruguay, Namibia and the US Virgin Islands will need to self-isolate for ten days from tomorrow.
The new comes as the countries are removed from the travel corridors list.
There has been a consistent increase in Covid-19 cases per 100,000 of the population in Namibia, Uruguay and the US Virgin Islands since late November, leading ministers to remove these from the current list of travel corridors.
In Namibia, new cases per week have increased by 334 per cent over this time period.
In Uruguay, new cases per week have increased by 295 per cent over the same time period, while in the US Virgin Islands, new cases per week have increased by 108 per cent.
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At the same time, the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) has updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Uruguay, Namibia and the US Virgin Islands.
These changes reflect the latest assessments by Public Health England of the risk to travellers in each of these destinations.
Passengers arriving in the UK from countries not featured on the travel corridor list are, however, now able to opt-in and pay for a Covid-19 test from a private provider five days after they were last in a non-travel corridor location, with a negative test result releasing them from the need to self-isolate.
Christmas break
Ministers have agreed a two-week pause to the travel corridor review process, to provide certainty for passengers and industry around travel plans over the festive break.
The move will ensure that those who are planning to travel over the Christmas period do not face last minute disruption unless absolutely necessary due to increasing infection rates.
There are no planned removals or additions until January 7th when the regular process will resume.
However, the government has made consistently clear it will take decisive action to contain the virus, including removing countries from the travel corridors list rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.
This remains the case over the festive period, and we will continue to monitor the data on levels of imported infection and take urgent action if the data indicates the need to.
Image: S. Mazzarovich/DPA/PA Images
