Luxembourg removed from UK travel corridor countries list

The UK government has announced that people arriving in the UK from Luxembourg as of midnight on 30 July 2020 will be required to self-isolate for two weeks after removing the country from the travel exemptions list following data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England that indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Luxembourg.

There has been a consistent increase in coronavirus cases per 100,000 of the population in Luxembourg since the end of June 2020, with over a ten-fold increase in total cases over this time period. As a result, UK ministers took the decision to remove Luxembourg from the travel corridor list of countries from which people arriving in the UK do not have to self-isolate.

At the same time, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has also updated its travel advice for Luxembourg to advise against all but essential travel to the country. People currently in Luxembourg are encouraged to follow the local rules and check the FCO travel advice pages for further information.

The UK government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including removing countries rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country and not self-isolating becomes too high. 

The devolved administrations have all taken the same decision, so travellers arriving from Luxembourg into all parts of the UK will need to self-isolate. The government is urging employers to be understanding of those returning from Luxembourg who will now need to self-isolate.

Travellers should always check the latest advice from the FCO, given the potential for changing coronavirus infection rates to affect both the advice about travelling to other countries and rules about self-isolation on return. All travellers, including those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show a complete passenger locator form on arrival into the UK.