The culture secretary has said that the government is working “intensively” on air bridges but could not give a date on when they might be announced.
Oliver Dowden was speaking at the government’s daily coronavirus press briefing and was asking if he could envisage overseas holidays taking place by August.
He replied: “It’s worth remembering how this situation has arisen. As we’ve got these cases of coronavirus under control we want to be sure we don’t import cases from other countries.
“Now that we’ve got that [quarantine] regime in place we are looking at corridors, particularly to countries that have low infection rates, where we could allow travel.
“I know that the transport secretary [Grant Shapps] is working intensively on this alongside the prime minister and others and I’m hopeful that we will be able to make some progress on that, but as always we will be driven on the public health.”
Dowden was also quizzed on when the government would announce a return of domestic tourism.
He was asked if he stood by a previous plan to allow UK holidays by July 4 – and told “most folks need more than two weeks’ notice.”
He said: “We have set out a roadmap. The next stage in this roadmap is July 4. I very much hope we will be able to stick to that roadmap and we will see tourism return to the UK.”
Dowden said he was a “huge fan” of UK holidays, adding: “I want to be out there making the case for people to do that, but we can only do so when it is safe.
“We will publish the guidance in due course. We have made a lot of progress with it but the key thing is ensuring it’s safe to do so.”