Transport secretary Grant Shapps has announced that the UK government will only make “emergency removals” to the travel corridor list for the next two weeks.
He tweeted: “Providing certainty to those travelling over Xmas, we will only make EMERGENCY removals to the #TravelCorridor list if needed for the next two weeks. Next regular update 7th Jan.”
He also tweeted that Uruguay, Namibia and US Virgin Islands are being removed from the list: “Latest data means we must remove URUGUAY, NAMIBIA and US VIRGIN ISLANDS from the #TravelCorridor list. From 4am Saturday 19th December, if you arrive into the UK from these destinations you will need to self-isolate.”
The three countries will no longer be exempt from quarantine measures, so arrivals to the UK will be subject to 10 days of self-isolation.
In a third tweet, he reminded travellers about the test to release scheme, saying: “Passengers returning to England can now buy a COVID-19 test from an approved private provider and reduce their self-isolation time IF they receive a negative result.”
He provided a link to the government’s list of private providers.
The UK’s ‘test to release’ scheme began on December 15, and allows for arrivals into the UK to be released from quarantine if they receive a negative result from a test taken on their fifth day after arrival.
It has been widely criticised as some firms could not provide tests and others experienced delays.
Last week, Shapps announced the Canaries were to be removed from the travel corridors list on December 12.