Prime Minister Boris Johnson looks on during a visit at Leeds General Infirmary, in Leeds, Britain October 2, 2021. Christopher Furlong/Pool via REUTERS

 

LONDON, Oct 2 (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will open up more countries for hotel quarantine-free travel later this week, The Sunday Telegraph reported, saying that the UK's "red list" of destinations would be slashed to nine from 54.

 

Fully vaccinated arrivals from countries including South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia will no longer have to quarantine in a government-designated hotel for 10 days when they get to England from later in October, the newspaper said.

 

The changes are set to be announced on Thursday, and will likely result in a surge of bookings, boosting airlines and travel companies that have been brought to their knees during the pandemic.

 

The country's hotel quarantine policy for higher risk countries costs 2,285 pounds ($3,095) per adult, deterring global travel.

Britain is already planning to relax its travel rules from Oct. 4 by scrapping its amber list for medium risk destinations and no longer requiring fully vaccinated passengers to take a COVID-19 test before they arrive in the country from places not on the red list.

 

The government has said that from later in October, arrivals in England will no longer have to take a PCR test two days after arrival and can instead opt for the cheaper lateral flow test.

 

($1 = 0.7383 pounds)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2021-10-03

 

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Will Thailand make the cut?

3 minutes ago, 2long said:

Will Thailand make the cut?

555 what do you think

10 minutes ago, 2long said:

Will Thailand make the cut?

From the article:

 

"Thailand could also become a quarantine-free destination, but was said to be a “more marginal call”.

11 minutes ago, 2long said:

Will Thailand make the cut?

I doubt it, they are not doing enough testing and more important genome testing looking for dangerous mutations which Thailand is at high risk of developing because of their failed vaccine program - mixing stuff - 75% dose reduction - unapproved method of administration 

 

it is quite a catalog of failures and poor choices

Fingers crossed. But they have Beta down in the South and that, on top of the other deficiencies, could be enough to keep Thailand on. It all (hotel quarantine) seems pretty pointless now. Pre-departure and 1 x post arrival test should be enough.

2 hours ago, 2long said:

Will Thailand make the cut?

You mean the chop job ?

Southpark called it correctly

 

6 hours ago, BKKBike09 said:

Fingers crossed. But they have Beta down in the South and that, on top of the other deficiencies, could be enough to keep Thailand on. It all (hotel quarantine) seems pretty pointless now. Pre-departure and 1 x post arrival test should be enough.

This is the reason the article I read yesterday suggested that some countries will remain on the list - anywhere that's got the Beta variant, the one from South Africa - that's what they're looking out for and it mentioned Thailand specifically.