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UK Removes France, Malta, Netherlands, Aruba and more from ‘safe’ list

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Travel rules in the UK are getting stricter by the day and Brits are seeing their quarantine-free options shrinking by the minute. 

The government just announced that as of August 15th, 6 more countries will be removed from the travel corridor list, effectively reinstating the requirement to quarantine when coming from those nations.

On July 10th, the United Kingdom created a list of 60 ‘safe’ travel destinations where arrivals did not have to quarantine upon entering the UK, as long as they were coming from those countries. Since creating the list, the UK has had to remove many countries, with the biggest elimination previously being Spain on July 26th.

The 6 countries that will be removed from the travel corridor ‘safe’ list on August 15th are:

  • Aruba
  • France
  • Malta
  • Monaco
  • the Netherlands
  • Turks and Caicos Islands

The government states that the case numbers per capita have gotten too high to remain on the approved travel corridor list.

Tourists crowd the beach in the Netherlands

Anyone, including both UK residents returning from vacation as well as travelers originating from those countries, will have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival into the UK after the 15th.

The need to quarantine will be required even for transit stops in a country that is not on the travel corridor list.

This announcement will effectively leave thousands of British travellers without enough notice to arrive back into the UK before the new quarantine rules hit, which has many travelers outraged.

Other recent removals from the UK’s ‘safe’ list have been:

Andorra, the Bahamas and Belgium on August 8th, Luxembourg on July 31st, and Spain on July 26th.

Aruba and Malta, 2 of the nations being removed from the safe list on August 15th, have seen a massive surge in cases since reopening their borders for tourism.

On August 3rd, Aruba was only reporting 9 total active cases, but then just 10 days later listed a total of 776 on August 13th. More than 11,000 tourists have visited Aruba since it’s reopening in July, and despite strict testing requirements for entry, the case numbers are spiking at an alarming rate.

Photo Cred: Worldometers

Malta has had a similar spike in cases after officially reopening the airport on July 1st and then allowing additional nations to visit as of July 15th.

Photo Cred: Worldometers

The news of the UK removing more nations does not show promising outcomes for eager travelers this fall, as tourists may find their options for quarantine free travel to be dwindling down even further.

As of mid-August, most European nations have started implementing tougher rules and stricter regulations. 

Tourists wearing masks

Sources: Uk Government

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