Four destinations added and one removed from UK travel corridor list

The Canary Islands, Mykonos, the Maldives and Denmark have been added to the UK government’s travel corridor list following a decrease in confirmed cases of coronavirus.

From 25 October 2020, passengers arriving into the UK from these destinations will no longer need to self-isolate so long as they haven’t been in or transited through any other non-exempt countries in the 14 days preceding their arrival. 

People arriving into the UK from Liechtenstein from 25 October will need to self-isolate for two weeks following the removal of the country from the travel exemptions list.

Data from the Joint Biosecurity Centre and Public Health England has indicated a significant change in both the level and pace of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Liechtenstein, leading to UK Ministers removing the country from the current list of travel corridors.

A range of factors are taken into account when deciding to remove a country from the exemption list, including the continued increase of coronavirus within a country, the numbers of new cases, information on a country’s testing capacity, testing regime and test positivity rate and the potential trajectory of the disease in the coming weeks.

Data from Liechtenstein shows that the weekly incidence (cases) per 100,000 has increased from 65.1 on the 14 October to 244.9 on the 21 October 2020. This equates to a 276 per cent increase.

At the same time, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) has also updated its travel advice to advise against all but essential travel to Liechtenstein.

The Canary Islands, Mykonos, the Maldives and Denmark are now exempt from the FCDO’s global advisory against non-essential travel. These changes reflect the latest assessments by Public Health England of the risk to travellers in each of these destinations.

The UK government has made it consistently clear that it will take decisive action if necessary to contain the virus, including removing countries from the travel corridors list rapidly if the public health risk of people returning from a particular country without self-isolating becomes too high.

People currently in Liechtenstein are encouraged to follow the local rules and check the FCDO travel advice pages for further information. The UK government is urging employers to be understanding of those returning from these destinations who will now need to self-isolate.

COVID-19 has profoundly changed the nature of international travel. Travellers should always check the latest advice from the FCDO to keep up to date with the latest information on the risks associated with travel to another country, as well as the entry rules and measures introduced by local authorities that may affect British travellers.

All travellers, including those from exempt destinations, will still be required to show a complete passenger locator form on arrival into the UK unless they fall into a small group of exemptions.

Penalties for those breaching the self-isolation rules when returning from non-exempt countries have increased from £1,000 for first offences up to £10,000 for subsequent offences, mirroring penalties for those breaching self-isolation following a positive COVID-19 test or contact from Test & Trace.