British travellers will be able to visit Greece, whether they have had a Covid-19 vaccine or not, according to the country’s tourism minister.
Haris Theoharis told ITV News that Britons who have had the vaccine will be able to travel to Greece and no longer be required to self-isolate upon arrival.
Those who have not been vaccinated will require a negative Covid-19 test before travelling to Greece.
He told ITV News: “We feel that the vaccination programmes is a game-changer, together with rapid tests and alongside PCR tests.
“We feel that vaccination means someone with the required certificates which will be issued by the government will mean you don’t need to have a negative test before the flight.
“But it doesn’t mean that only vaccinated people can travel. We still have the option of a negative test for those who haven’t had a vaccine.”
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports that Greece is in “technical” talks with the UK over vaccine passports “despite concerns in Brussels and other EU capitals”.
Theoharis told the newspaper that he hoped to “dovetail” with Boris Johnson’s roadmap for allowing Britons to travel “but refused to be drawn on whether Greece would break with Brussels to establish the scheme”.
The EU’s heads of state and government are set to discuss the deployment of a common vaccination certificate during their meeting on Thursday.
Theoharis told the Guardian: “With this system we’d be instituting two lanes in airports as it were.
“The vaccination lane and the non-vaccination lane which would facilitate travel quite a bit.
“There are a number of misconceptions around the certificate, the first being that it would be discriminatory. It’s not, because it’s just an alternative to negative testing.”
